Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies Program

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) program. The purpose of the RMOMS program is to establish or continue collaborative improvement and innovation networks to improve access to and delivery of maternity and obstetrics care in rural areas. The goals of the RMOMS program are to: (i) Identify and implement evidence-based and sustainable delivery models for the provision of maternal and obstetrics care in rural hospitals and communities; (ii) Enhance and preserve access to maternal and obstetric services in rural hospitals that includes developing an approach to aggregate, coordinate, and sustain the delivery and access of preconception, prenatal, pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum services; (iii) Provide training for professionals in health care settings that do not have specialty maternity care; (iv) Collaborate with academic institutions that can provide regional clinical expertise (such as specialty expertise and provider support using a variety of modalities including telehealth services) and help identify barriers to providing maternal health care, including strategies for addressing such barriers; and (v) Assess and address disparities in infant and maternal health outcomes, including among rural racial and ethnic minority populations and underserved populations. Applicants are encouraged to propose novel ways to achieve these goals through the establishment or continuation of collaborative improvement and innovation networks. The RMOMS program seeks to document and monitor progress on these goals through the collection of aggregate data from each RMOMS award recipient and their network members. All network members will be REQUIRED to collect and share aggregate data. This program intends to preserve access to and continuity of maternal and obstetrics care in rural communities that address the following RMOMS Focus Areas: 1) Rural Hospital Obstetric Service Aggregation A regional network with several rural hospitals that are facing challenges in providing obstetric services could aggregate obstetric services to a targeted rural hospital or Critical Access Hospital (CAH) within the rural region to revive or sustain rural obstetric and maternal services. 2) Approaches to Risk-Appropriate Care Pregnant patients in a rural region should receive care in a facility that best meets their needs and those of their neonates through appropriate risk stratification. 3) Financial Sustainability Rural hospitals who have coordinated and aggregated their obstetrics services, in partnership with Medicaid and other payers, should aim to demonstrate improved outcomes and potential savings with the goal of ensuring ongoing support of the network once federal funding ceases. For more details, see Program Requirements and Expectations.