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On June 26, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model. TMaH is ten-year delivery and payment model designed to test whether effective implementation of evidence‑informed interventions, sustained by a value-based payment (VBP) model, can improve maternal outcomes and reduce Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expenditures. CMS will issue cooperative agreements to up to 15 State Medicaid Agencies (SMAs) to participate in the TMaH Model. Each selected SMA will be eligible for up to $17 million over the course of the model (January 20, 2025 to January 19, 2035) with up to $8 million for Pre-Implementation in Model Years 1–3 and up to $9 million for Implementation in Model Years 4–10. Applications to participate in the TMaH Model are due on September 20, 2024 by 11:59 pm ET. The anticipated award date is January 13, 2025.
The TMaH application and the implementation of the model are comprehensive and resource intensive, requiring input from multi-disciplinary teams across SMAs (and possibly other agencies, like Maternal and Child Health), as well as deep engagement with community partners. As states consider whether to apply for TMaH and how to approach implementation, the speed and staff resources required are top of mind. Some states are certainly contemplating whether the up to $17 million award funding is sufficient for implementing all the requirements of the model, particularly considering that states could choose to (and providers will be advocating for) allocation of up to $5 million of the pre-implementation award for provider capacity building. As they consider these questions and prepare their applications, state Medicaid agencies and their TMaH partners, including providers and managed care plans, need to think about the following…