access- Year-one award
- $208,374,448
- Lead agency
- Dept. of Health
- Maternal care in the plan
- Names maternal care without a maternal line item
- Status
- Closed, awards imminent
What Louisiana's plan says about maternal care
The Department of Health leads the program, which received $208.4 million for year one, through its Office of Rural Health Transformation and Sustainability. Initiative 5 in the application, a $130 million, five-year initiative to integrate care for high-need populations that includes care navigation, telehealth infrastructure and behavioral health partnerships, aims to "increase telehealth infrastructure access across rural facilities to support behavioral health, prenatal, and chronic-care services in underserved parishes," and measures success partly by the "% increase in postpartum follow-up within 30 days among rural women receiving integrated maternal-health care." No maternal dollar figure appears in any later document.
What is open, and what comes next
Four year-one rounds closed over the summer. Telehealth Infrastructure for Rural Access ($5 million, closed July 10, 79 applications, about $4.71 million projected) targets "maternal and prenatal health" and "emergency specialty consultation" and allows remote monitoring devices, telehealth carts and diagnostic peripherals, with a funding period of August 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027. The state first expected those awards in late August, then listed notices of intent for the end of September; none had been posted by September 30. A public webinar is set for October 1.
The Capital Improvement round drew 160 applications (about $41.6 million projected), Collaborative Provider Models 37 applications (about $3 million projected, with a bonus for expanding essential services including OB) and the Rural Medicaid Alternative Payment Model 31 applications (up to $30 million, with prenatal and postpartum care a priority measure); their notices of intent are also pending. The Rural Clinician Credit Bank has made 53 awards totaling $12.7 million, and its year-two applications open in November 2026.
Who can apply, and where a partner fits
Applicants had to qualify as rural under the state's definition. Rural hospitals and clinics that win telehealth or collaborative-model awards this fall will be buying the specialty services those awards assume. A telehealth practice fits as the maternal service on a funded telehealth cart, the obstetric line a collaborative model expands, and the partner behind a prenatal and postpartum measure in the payment model.
Where Ouma fits
How tele-MFM fits Louisiana's model
Louisiana bought infrastructure first and left the service to the applicant. A cart and a peripheral in a rural emergency department produce an image and a call. The plan's own measure is whether a rural woman gets postpartum follow-up within 30 days. Ouma provides contracted maternal-fetal medicine coverage and ultrasound interpretation to rural and critical access hospitals. 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
Does Louisiana fund maternal care through the program?
Not as a line item. Prenatal care and postpartum follow-up are named goals of the care-integration initiative that includes telehealth, and the telehealth round listed maternal and prenatal health as an eligible use.
When will the telehealth awards be announced?
The Department of Health listed notices of intent for the end of September 2026. None had been posted by September 30. Watch the state's October 1 webinar and its RHTP page.