Congressional Briefing on Maternal Mental Health, July 12, 2023

Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health & NEXT Life Sciences host a Congressional briefing on developments in family planning, including male contraception

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, July 12, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, in collaboration with NEXT Life Sciences, Inc., is hosting a briefing to inform members of Congress on the latest developments within family planning, including novel male contraception and the impact that unplanned pregnancy has on maternal mental health and wellbeing.

This briefing will outline current federal family planning policies, the status of access to contraception in the states, the economic and tax impacts of unplanned pregnancy, innovative contraceptive options for men, and a proposal containing recommendations for new federal and state policies to support maternal wellbeing.

The speakers presenting insights during this briefing are:

- Moderator: Brittni Frederiksen, MPH, PhD, KFF Health News
- Priya Bathija, JD, Board Member, the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health
- Jason Lindo, PhD, Texas A&M University
- Kelli Stidham Hall, PhD, MS, Columbia University
- L.R. Fox, CEO of Next Life Sciences + Plan A™ Male Contraception
- Lisa Peterson, COO of Victa Life
- Joy Burkhard, Executive Director of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health

Details to register and tune in to the briefing online:

Bipartisan Congressional Briefing: The Latest Insights and Opportunities for Improving Family Planning Options for Maternal Wellbeing
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
10:30-11:45am PT / 1:30-2:45pm ET
Register: http://tinyurl.com/July12Briefing

Policy recommendations as outlined by The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health include:

States:
- Remaining States Should Expand Medicaid Under the Affordable Care Act
- Remaining States Should Extend Medicaid Coverage to 12 months postpartum
- Should Apply for Family Planning Benefit Waivers
- Should Provide Medicaid Coverage of Community-Based Health Workers

Health Insurers:
- Group Health Plans, Insurers, and Regulators Should Ensure Compliance with the Contraception provisions of the Preventive Care benefit under the Affordable Care Act
- Should Improve Access to the Family Planning Counseling Benefit
- Should Reduce Barriers to Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs)
- Should Cover All FDA-Approved Contraception
- Should Cover 12-month Supplies of Birth Control Pills
- Should Cover FDA-Approved Over-the-Counter Contraception

Federal Government
- Congress Should Support Access to Contraception
- Congress Should Support Expanding Access to Family Planning
- Congress Should Establish Permanent, Nationwide 12-month Postpartum Medicaid Coverage in a Year-End Legislative Package
- Congress Should Support Families with Unplanned Pregnancies Through Social and Child Supports
- FDA Should Approve Over-the-Counter Oral Contraception

Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), Accreditation Bodies and Health Delivery Systems:
- The Person-Centered Contraceptive Counseling (PCCC) Measure Should be Adopted

About The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health (the “Policy Center”) is working to prevent the suffering of mothers, babies, and families associated with untreated maternal mental health disorders, like postpartum depression. The Policy Center has driven the national conversation from one centered around raising awareness of one disorder, postpartum depression, to building a movement to address maternal mental health. The organization's work centers around closing gaps in the healthcare system by scaling change through the identification of evidence-based and emerging solutions, cross-sector collaboration, and advancing legislative and regulatory policy solutions. For more information, visit http://www.PolicyCenterMMH.org and follow @PolicyCenterMMH on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About NEXT Life Sciences
NEXT Life Sciences, Inc. (NEXT) is a medical device company striving to transform lives through the development of its lead program, Plan A™, designed to provide a non-hormonal, long-lasting, and reversible contraceptive solution for men. NEXT’s executive management team and board members have a proven track record of leadership across early-stage research, product development, and global commercialization, having served in leadership roles at successful medical device and contraceptive companies that developed and launched products that achieved iconic status. For more information, visit https://www.nextlifesciences.org/ and https://www.planaformen.com/.

Disclaimer
All forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Statements within this document have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Plan A™ is currently not approved by FDA for commercial distribution.

General Contact The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health:
sarah.johanek@policycentermmh.org

Media Contact for NEXT Life Sciences + Plan A™:
press@planaformen.com

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NEXT Life Sciences
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