access- Year-one award
- $233,639,308
- Lead agency
- Health Care Access and Information
- Maternal care in the plan
- Puts a dollar figure on maternal care
- Status
- Closed, awards pending
What California's plan funds for maternal care
The Department of Health Care Access and Information leads the program under the Rural Health Policy Council; the state received $233.6 million for year one. The state's summary for CMS describes "regional hub and spoke networks anchored by hospital hubs and spokes that include critical access hospitals, clinics, birthing centers, and other providers." The plan commits to "strengthening maternity care by implementing the OB Nest model, which reduces in-person visits through virtual nurse contacts and home monitoring," integrating the Perinatal Psychiatry Access Program, and a system that "enables real-time specialty access, e-Consults, remote patient self-monitoring," with a target of 10% more virtual visits and e-consults for maternity needs. The first budget period puts $2 million into a rural train-the-trainer program covering maternal health, chronic disease, behavioral health and telehealth, and $11.5 million into a workforce-capacity line that funds clinician upskilling, family medicine obstetric fellowships, and Project ECHO and OB Nest programs. It cuts the doula and midwife line to zero for now, "decreased original proposed budget amount by $5.0M," for year two.
CalRHT is also paying for maternal workforce training directly. A nine-month Primary Care–Maternal Behavioral Health fellowship run through UC Irvine is recruiting doulas, midwives, OB/GYNs, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physicians who train in rural locations; the $15,500 tuition may be waived for qualified rural applicants.
What is open, and what comes next
The Accelerator Partners round ($39.01 million, five to twenty-five awards, $8 million cap) opened July 1 and closed August 14, 2026, for "hospitals or other organizations in rural regions" to "strengthen primary and maternity care in rural parts of the state" using models such as "Project ECHO, OB Nest, tele-OB, and tele-cardiology." The grant guide scheduled award notices for August or September and grant agreements for September and October. The FM-OB fellowship round also closed August 14. Neither round's awardees had been published as of September 30. In late September the state posted a sample grant agreement for its workforce recruitment and retention program, which focuses on clinicians who provide primary care and maternal health services. The Rural Health Policy Council meets next on October 27, 2026.
Who can apply, and where a partner fits
Rural hospitals and organizations applied; vendors weren't named. The networks that win will include birth centers and clinics that need the specialist half of OB Nest and tele-OB. A telehealth practice fits as that half, contracted by the hub or the network.
Where Ouma fits
How tele-MFM fits California's model
OB Nest moves routine prenatal contact to nurses and home monitoring and depends on a physician layer for the patient whose readings change. Tele-OB extends obstetric consults to spokes that have none. Ouma provides contracted maternal-fetal medicine coverage and ultrasound interpretation to rural and critical access hospitals and clinics. Ouma is licensed to practice in all 50 states and is Medicaid-enrolled in 20 states as of August 2026.
See every state's plan side by side or what a partner letter for an application looks like.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Accelerator Partners round open?
No. It closed August 14, 2026. Award notices were scheduled for August or September and hadn't been published as of September 30.
Where did the doula and midwife funding go?
The first budget period reduced that line by $5 million to zero, with the state planning it for the second budget period.