BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is the only state in the country without a maternal review committee after a sunset clause embedded into the legislation creating the program kicked in at the beginning of a new fiscal year.
Lawmakers created the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) in 2019 after passing House Bill 109 (HB109). MMRC met annually to investigate pregnancy-related deaths and severe complications to gain a deeper knowledge of how to improve healthcare systems in Idaho, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW)
"The whole idea is not necessarily to find someone to blame, but how do we improve our systems, and fight to make sure that we have the resources so that women are not in danger," former committee member and Maternal Fetal Physician Specialist, Dr. Stacy Seyb said. "We won't have the ability to look at cases from that sort of a multidisciplinary way anymore, and what you end up with [now] is some raw numbers."
The number of maternal deaths will still be tracked, according to IDHW Women and Infant Health Program Manager Jennifer Liposhak.
"This data does not provide the same opportunity for a comprehensive in-depth case review of a maternal death to determine if the death was pregnancy-related, the cause of death, preventability of the death, factors contributing to the death, and recommendations and actions that address the identified contributing factors," Liposhak said.
The program created four reports in three years, spanning calendar years from 2018-2021. KTVB previously reported Idaho Democrats criticized their Republican counterparts for allowing the program to conclude.
Reports ranging 2018-2020 show MMRC concluded all 26 pregnancy-related deaths in Idaho were preventable. In 2021, MMRC reported 15 of 17 deaths were preventable.
MMRC, however, did not produce a work product to solve any of the problems they identified, according to House Majority Leader Megan Blanksma (R-Hammett).
"This year, we are working with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to figure out how we can do that within the department," Blanksma told KTVB in a June 16 phone interview.
The MMRC was never meant to execute action points, both Seyb and fellow former MMRC member Dr. Caitlin Gustafson told KTVB. Rather, each report offered recommendations to remedy the issues discovered in the review.
"In other words, MMRC is the review arm that facilitates the [Perinatal Quality Collaborative] action arm, and both are essential to improving maternal health outcomes," Gustafson wrote KTVB in an email.
The Idaho Medical Association (IMA) wrote HB109 to create MMRC in 2019; they do not believe the work previously conducted by MMRC can be done internally within IDHW, according to IMA CEO Susie Keller.
The sunset clause was included into HB109 as a compromise between advocates and skeptics to at least give MMRC a chance to materialize.
"I think it's only fair that it prove its worth. In this case, we absolutely think it has proven its worth in showing that we do have a problem with increasing maternal deaths in the state of Idaho," Keller said. "The committee has also provided some solid recommendations for us to implement and make sure we don't have women needlessly dying."
Rep. Dori Healey (R-Boise) sponsored House Bill 81 (HB81) in the 2023 legislative session to remove the sunset clause from HB109. The bill never received a hearing in the House Health and Welfare Committee after being introduced, according to the Idaho Legislature website.
"I think what I'm most worried about is the fact that we won't have the information that we need, not only to improve care, but let's go to where the problem is," Seyb said. "And that's why a few years of looking at it is not like, 'oh, we got it fixed. We're done.' We got to continue to look at it and monitor it."
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