Postpartum contraceptive use in Medicaid enrollees falls below national goals, new study using T-MSIS data shows

First-of-its-kind national comparison of Medicaid postpartum contraceptive services in 2016 finds wide variation across U.S. states.

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A first-of-its-kind national comparison of postpartum contraceptive services use by Medicaid enrollees published in JAMA Network Open using the T-MSIS TAF dataset shows state-by-state rates of postpartum contraceptive use.

This study examines how use of both most and moderately effective forms of contraceptive vary markedly between states and nationally by 60 days postpartum in 2016, and that nationally only 34% of postpartum people are using an effective form of contraception by 60 days after giving birth. This is well below the 58.8% national goal outlined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in their Healthy People 2020 goals for family planning.

On the state level, only 8 states showed rates at or above 40% for most or moderately effective postpartum contraception use within Medicaid, and 4 fell at or below 25%. Similar variations were also observed in the use of postpartum long-acting reversible contraception (Ex. IUD). Significant variations could point to systematic underuse of effective care and opportunities for state and federal policies to improve outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries.

Rates for individual states can be found on our interactive map, and the complete report is also available online.

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