California, Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma Selected for CMS-Text4baby Grant
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Awards Three-Year Contract to Support Text4baby in
California, Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma
Project focused on improving key maternal and child health outcomes
WASHINGTON (February 25, 2014) –As part of a recently awarded contract, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that four states—California, Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma—have been selected to participate in a pilot project supporting the implementation of Text4baby, the nation’s largest and only free mobile health service that makes it easy for expecting and new moms to receive important health and safety information.
CMS will work with Text4baby founding partners, Voxiva and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), and the selected state Medicaid agencies to expand efforts to enroll Medicaid beneficiaries in the service, customize Text4baby messages to include state-specific information on available health services and benefits, and assess Text4baby’s impact on improving health outcomes.
“We are thrilled to be working with these four unique states to further connect local women to Text4baby’s valuable health and safety information and to demonstrate the effectiveness of Text4baby,” said Janice Frey-Angel, CEO of HMHB.
“With more and more outcome data showing Text4baby’s impact, this project gives us a great opportunity to work with CMS, state Medicaid agencies, managed care organizations and other partners to make Text4baby more available for pregnant women and new moms,” said Voxiva Chairman Paul Meyer.
Women who sign up for Text4baby by texting BABY (BEBE for Spanish) to 511411 will receive three free text messages per week timed to their due date or baby’s birthday. The messages cover a broad range of topics including labor signs and symptoms, the benefits of full-term delivery, breastfeeding and oral health. Text4baby also includes interactive appointment and immunization reminders, educational videos and mobile web pages, links to health-related services and urgent health alerts.
Since its launch in 2010, Text4baby has enrolled over 680,000 moms and delivered over 90 million health messages and urgent alerts.
###
About Text4baby
Launched in 2010, Text4baby is the nation’s only free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health through text messaging. Text4baby is a free program provided through a partnership between the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) and Voxiva. Text4baby’s Founding Sponsor is Johnson & Johnson. Founding partners include The Wireless Foundation and Grey Healthcare Group (a WPP company). A special thanks goes to the carriers who support Text4baby so the service can be free to the end users: Alltel, Assurance Wireless, AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, Boost Mobile, Cellcom, Cincinnati Bell, Cricket, MetroPCS, n-Telos, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile U.S.A. Text4baby’s public-private partnership also includes over 1200 national, state and local organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.