Carrum Health Partners with The Minnesota Birth Center to Launch First-of-its-Kind Maternity Care Bundle

Carrum members can now access midwifery-led maternity care benefits for low-risk births in Minnesota

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carrum Health, the first digital health company connecting employers and employees to Centers of Excellence (COEs) through a technology-powered platform, today launched its first maternity care benefit in partnership with The Minnesota Birth Center in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Together, they will provide a comprehensive maternity care episode spanning prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum care for low-risk moms and their babies, at a single cost for self-insured employers. The Carrum Health maternity benefit offers continuity of care through midwifery-led, OB/GYN-supported and doula-assisted teams to simultaneously improve outcomes and patients' experiences, while also lowering costs.

Childbirth is the leading cause of hospitalization in the United States, according to the Health Cost Institute, and accounts for 15% of all hospital charges billed to private insurers. Most maternity bundles on the market address professional services, but do not cover facility fees, which account for at least 60% of overall cost of care.

"We chose to launch our first maternity care benefit with a freestanding birth center because a large percentage of pregnancies are low risk, and we see an enormous opportunity to reduce costs and improve the care experience by offering our members lower intervention birth options, which is a key focus of The Minnesota Birth Center," said Brook West, Chief Commercial Officer of Carrum Health. "Our comprehensive maternity offering uniquely addresses the high cost of facility fees and supports members with a dedicated care team throughout their entire pregnancy, birth and postpartum journey."

Accredited freestanding birth centers, like The Minnesota Birth Center, are recognized by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) as an integral part of many regionalized care systems. Freestanding birth center births have increased more than 50% between 2004 and 2017. They provide holistic primary midwifery care for mothers and babies, reducing interventions that are not medically necessary when mothers are low-risk and choose physiologic, unmedicated births. By supporting natural births and avoiding unnecessary medical procedures, the Center can help prevent issues that could result in subsequent high-risk pregnancies for women.

"Our certified nurse midwives have the same level of education and training as hospital midwives and have privileges at local hospitals so they are able to provide continuity of care. We are grateful that Carrum Health recognizes pregnancy as an important life-changing episode of care. Their Center of Excellence approach will be highly successful with this unique focus on primary maternity care," said Dr. Steve Calvin, founder and medical director at The Minnesota Birth Center and board certified in OB/GYN and the sub-specialty of maternal-fetal medicine. "The ideal is to have support for natural birth and a robust safety net that finds the sweet spot between obstetric care that is 'too much, too soon' and 'too little, too late.'"

Carrum's COE platform serves as a supplementary benefit for self-insured employers to offer their employees the highest quality, most appropriate care. Members are connected with a mobile app and a Care Specialist who guides them through the care journey. Employers benefit from seamless platform integration with other benefit offerings and a savings of up to 45% per episode of care.

Carrum is working to establish hospital partnerships, which will include hospital-based midwifery practices and OB-led partnerships to support mothers and babies requiring higher levels of care. For more information visit carrumhealth.com/maternity

The Minnesota Birth Center is excited to partner with Carrum Health to provide low-risk Minnesota mothers comprehensive high value maternity care for a single bundled price. Since 2012, our primary midwifery model has empowered mothers to achieve excellent outcomes in over 3,300 pregnancies. Safety, satisfaction and savings are realized by the collaboration of our accredited independent birth centers with supportive integrated hospital partners theminnesotabirthcenter.com

Carrum Health offers the first value-based complete surgical care platform that combines the benefits of a bundled payments Centers of Excellence (COE) with surgical guidance and coordination to deliver the highest quality, most appropriate care. By connecting self-insured employers with the top 10% of doctors and facilities across the nation, Carrum reduces unnecessary procedures by as much as 30% and aligns cost and care incentives to save employers up to 45% per episode of care, all validated by peer-reviewed publications. Carrum's award-winning technology gives members access to a mobile app and Care Specialist that guides them through the surgery process, and a seamless platform integration to make COE adoption plug-and-play for employers. Backed by Tiger Global, Carrum was named to the 2021 CB Insights Digital Health 150 and named one of the best places to work in 2022 by Built In. The company, founded in 2014, is headquartered in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit carrumhealth.com.

SOURCE Carrum Health