Implementing and Evaluating Structural Interventions in Medicaid to Promote Racial Equity in Pregnancy and Child Health

September 2021 - August 2023

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The University of Pittsburgh, the Medicaid Research Center, the Pennsylvania Doula Commission, and the Maternity Care Coalition have partnered with Healthy Start to evaluate structural policies in Medicaid designed to address racial equity by improving maternal and child health outcomes among Black populations and expansion of doula coverage in Pennsylvania.

Healthy Start’s role in this project is to provide input as a community-based organization into the development of the study, to train and connect community members as direct contributors to the research rather than just study participants, to serve as advisory to the project, and to provide and support trained community health advocates to serve as citizen-scientists.