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Show Prenatal care available More Utah women can now obtain prenatal care services through a new Prenatal Initiative Program created with an appropriation approp-riation from the 1987 Utah Legislature Legisla-ture to the Utah Department of Health. The program is coordinated by the Department's Family Health Services Division and the Division of Health Care Financing (Medicaid). (Medi-caid). The Department of Social Services will determine Medicaid eligibility for the prenatal services. "Women and infants will now have a better chance of getting necessary care," says Dr. Peter van Dyck, director of the Division of Family Health Services, "because "be-cause providers of health care and social services are now effectively linked by a statewide system." In addition to the legislative appropriation, the state agencies are able to provide new and enhanced en-hanced prenatal services because of recent changes in federal Medicaid Medi-caid coverage. In October 1986, Congress broadened states' ability to provide Medicaid coverage to low-income pregnant women and young children. The Department of Health has now greatly enhanced its services for pregnant women and mothers on Medicaid, to include nutrition counseling, high-risk screening, child birth and parent education classes, and psycho-social counseling. coun-seling. The Department has also begun a program of presumptive eligibility eligibil-ity which allows a pregnant woman to receive immediate prenatal services ser-vices for up to 45 days or until Medicaid eligibility has been confirmed con-firmed or denied. Formerly women could not receive any Medicaid reimbursed services during this two-four week period. "Presumptive eligibility helps us to provide pregnant women with prenatal care sooner," says van Dyck. "We believe this will reduce the number of low birth weight babies and decrease the state's infant in-fant mortality rate." The Prenatal Initiative Program is offered at various clinics throughout Utah, including local health departments and community commun-ity health centers. In addition to close cooperation between the various va-rious state agencies, Department of Health care coordinators will work with private physicians and providers to help program participants partici-pants receive enhanced services. For more information contact the Family Health Services Division, Divi-sion, 538-6161 or your local health department. |