Requires health insurance plans to cover services provided by licensed certified professional midwives. Insurers would be required to report utilization and cost data annually and certain limited benefit policies would be exempt.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would require health insurance plans in Rhode Island to cover maternity and birthing services provided by licensed certified professional midwives (CPMs). Currently, insurance companies are not required to pay for care from this type of midwife, which means patients often have to pay out-of-pocket even if they have health insurance. Under this bill, insurers would have to treat CPM services as a covered benefit, similar to how they cover care from doctors or nurses.

The bill would primarily affect pregnant Rhode Islanders who choose to use a certified professional midwife for their prenatal care, labor, delivery, or postpartum care — particularly those who prefer home births or birth center settings. It would also affect insurance companies, which would be required to add this coverage to their plans. Some limited benefit policies — such as short-term or supplemental insurance plans — would be exempt from this requirement.

To track how the new coverage is being used, insurance companies would also be required to report data every year on how many people used CPM services and what those services cost. This information could help lawmakers and health officials evaluate the impact of the policy over time.

The bill has been introduced and referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, where it will be reviewed before any further action is taken. It has not yet been voted on.