accessYes in many states, with conditions. The program's categories cover technology-enabled care, technology training, health IT, service-line design and regional partnerships, which is where a telehealth maternal service sits. Oklahoma funds a tele-MFM network directly; Iowa's maternal hub program lists MFM care by telemedicine in scope; Pennsylvania ties remote monitoring to tele-MFM consults; Texas's telehealth initiative names maternal care. The money reaches a telehealth practice through a hospital's, clinic's or network's award, and the program won't pay for services insurance already covers.
What the program allows
CMS's funding notice lists eleven kinds of spending a state can fund, nine from the statute and two that CMS added, and none of them mentions pregnancy or maternal care. The ones that fit a maternal telehealth line are consumer-facing technology for prevention and chronic disease, training and technical assistance for technology-enabled care including remote monitoring, health IT, right-sizing service lines, care models including value-based arrangements, and local and regional partnerships. CMS's funding notice caps payments to providers for items or services at 15% of the state's award, which is why a service structured as availability, platform, training and coordination fits better than one structured as a fee per visit. The same notice lists "access to specialty care, for example maternal fetal medicine providers" among the example outcomes of its sample initiatives.
What it excludes
New construction. Capital above 20% of the award. Payment for services insurance already reimburses: CMS bars it in every state, and some states spell it out (Colorado's FAQ says grant funds can't pay for billable telehealth services). And any application led by a company that isn't an eligible rural organization: states subaward to hospitals, clinics, health centers, EMS and community organizations. Florida's FAQ says national companies "may participate only as subrecipients or approved subcontractors," Maryland's transformation funds require a non-profit lead, and Oregon lists technology vendors as partners or sub-recipients only. Utah's New Models of Care round goes further and limits funded clinical partners to Utah and four neighboring states.
How to write the budget line
Name the partner and the service. Put the grant against what a claim doesn't pay for: consult availability at any hour, ultrasound interpretation coverage, the telehealth platform and peripherals, sonographer and nurse training, protocol work, credentialing and care coordination. Show the claim-funded part separately, and show how the service continues after the award ends, because every state has to report sustainability to CMS. Watch the calendar too: states have to commit year-one money by October 30, 2026 and spend it by September 30, 2027, so a service that can start in weeks fits the program better than one that needs a building. We keep a one-page starting point, free and ungated: the tele-MFM budget line and partner letter.
What to confirm
- Does your state's plan name maternal care, and which round does it sit in?
- Which non-billable parts of the service does your state's round fund?
- Who can lead the application, and can your clinical partner be out of state?
- Who signs as the partner, and does the state want a letter at application?
- What happens to the service after September 30, 2027?
Where Ouma fits
Ouma provides contracted maternal-fetal medicine coverage and ultrasound interpretation to rural and critical access hospitals, as the partner a hospital names in its application. That includes hospitals that don't deliver babies, whose emergency departments still see pregnant patients. Ouma is licensed to practice in all 50 states and is Medicaid-enrolled in 20 states as of August 2026.
Sources
General information, not legal or grant-writing advice. Each state's rules govern.