The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report this month finding that maternal health outcomes worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic and urging HHS to use its resources to address the maternal health crisis occurring in the United States.

The CARES Act tasked the GAO with reporting on its pandemic oversight efforts. As part of its oversight, the GAO was asked to review the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal health outcomes. This recently issued report is a follow up to an earlier GAO report finding that maternal health disparities persisted throughout the pandemic and maternal health outcomes declined.

GAO reviewed three sources of HHS health data, including CDC vital health statistics, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project data regarding maternal morbidity and COVID-19 diagnoses, and CDC’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System survey data. To assess HHS’s maternal health efforts, GAO reviewed the Maternal Health Blueprint and two HHS programs focused on addressing maternal health. The Maternal Health Blueprint is a strategy document with specific agency action items intended to decrease maternal health morbidity and mortality, reduce maternal health disparities, and improve pregnant women’s prenatal to postpartum experience. The report focused on two maternal health: Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) and Perinatal Quality Collaborative. AIM is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to improve the safety of the births, and PQC is a CDC program working to improve maternal quality of care.

The report stated that maternal mortality and morbidity worsened during the pandemic and there were increased levels of depression and anxiety among women. In addition, disparities continued among certain groups of women. The GAO reported that maternal mortality was at its highest in 2021 and declined in 2022.

To address these issues, GAO recommended that: (1) HHS makes sure that the Office on Women’s Health and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation incorporate the Maternal Health Blueprint’s goals and implements targeted short-term goals within quantitative targets and timelines; and (2) the CDC Director ensures that the Perinatal Quality Collaborative program set quantitative goals.