access- Year-one award
- $189,477,607
- Lead agency
- Dept. of Health
- Maternal care in the plan
- Puts a dollar figure on maternal care
- Status
- Awarded, contracts finalizing
What South Dakota's plan funds for maternal care
The Department of Health leads the program with the Department of Social Services; the state received $189.5 million for year one. The initiative summary sets the design: "Fund three healthcare entities to design and launch maternal and infant health hubs linked to local spoke sites," with $24,000,000 over five years and partners that include rural hospitals and clinics, FQHCs, physician practices, integrated health systems, Indian and Tribal health services and community organizations. The project narrative describes the care model: "This will be a hybrid OB-Nest-style model combining in-person, telehealth, and remote monitoring prenatal and postpartum care." It also commits to "fund and support community and Tribal organizations to develop and sustain doula programs." A $576,150 maternal health assessment was awarded to Guidehouse and began June 1, 2026, and a $600,000 doula workforce round closed earlier in the year.
What is open, and what comes next
The initiative summary planned to "determine readiness of potential hub sites and release hub RFPs" between May and December 2026. So far the hub money has moved through the Rural Strong round instead: the state's July 23, 2026 announcement described 28 Rural Strong grants totaling $31.5 million, including "investments in maternal health hubs," and its August 31 annual report counts 30 grants and $31.75 million. The report says two of seven planned contracts are fully executed and the remaining five have been awarded and are being finalized. The recipient list hasn't been published; contracts are to be posted on OpenSD. The September funding forecast shows no standalone hub solicitation and says the state is preparing to release year two of its grant program.
Who can apply, and where a partner fits
Rural Strong was open to Medicaid-enrolled hospitals, FQHCs, rural health clinics, Tribal clinics, physician groups and behavioral health and dental clinics. The hubs are health systems; the spokes are the small hospitals and clinics around them. A telehealth practice's place is inside a hub's service design: the specialist consults and ultrasound reads a hub promises its spokes but can't staff from a single MFM division.
Where Ouma fits
How tele-MFM fits South Dakota's model
OB Nest reduces in-person prenatal visits by moving routine contact to nurses, telehealth and home monitoring. The model depends on a physician layer that can pick up the higher-risk patient when a reading or a scan says so. Ouma provides contracted maternal-fetal medicine coverage and ultrasound interpretation to rural and critical access hospitals, and can be that layer for a hub and its spokes. 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
Who won South Dakota's maternal hub awards?
The state hasn't published the recipients. Contracts are to be posted on OpenSD, and the annual report says five contracts are being finalized.
Is there a separate application for the hubs?
Not on the September 2026 forecast. The hub funding moved through the Rural Strong round.