01
The Challenge
For physician groups serving patients across New Mexico, access to maternity care can be limited by long travel distances, provider shortages, transportation challenges, and Medicaid-related scheduling barriers. Requiring families to return to a distant clinic for every educational or follow-up need can consume patient resources and scarce appointment capacity.
UNM’s published rural-perinatal priorities highlight the lack of obstetric services across much of the state. New Mexico’s maternal-health planning data identify transportation and appointment availability as important barriers among Medicaid-covered patients.
The business question
How can an OB/GYN group support pregnant and postpartum patients and newborn families at home—especially in rural Medicaid communities—without proportionally increasing clinical staffing, patient transportation costs, or physical appointment demand?
02
The BabyLiveAdvice Solution
BabyLiveAdvice functioned as a virtual extension of the physician care team, helping families access appropriate education, remote support, follow-up, and navigation from home. The model was designed to complement—not replace—OB/GYN visits, in-person examinations, delivery care, or emergency services.
Patients needing examination, diagnosis, treatment changes, or urgent care remained connected to the appropriate UPA, hospital, pediatric, or community clinical team.
- Prenatal education, birth preparation, and pregnancy-related support.
- Virtual postpartum follow-up, maternal recovery education, and care navigation.
- Breastfeeding, lactation, feeding, and newborn-care support.
- Diabetes, nutrition, and other appropriate chronic-condition education.
- Behavioral-health support and referral/escalation when clinically indicated.
- Scheduling, member outreach, encounter documentation, and follow-up workflows appropriate to the agreement.
03
Outcomes
BabyLiveAdvice extended maternal and infant support into patients’ homes, creating more opportunities to engage rural and Medicaid-covered families between scheduled clinical visits. Appropriate virtual encounters reduced the need for return travel and helped the physician group allocate in-person capacity to care requiring examination or hands-on evaluation.
Rural Access
Families could access eligible education and follow-up services from home rather than traveling long distances.
Continuity
Additional touchpoints for prenatal education, postpartum recovery, lactation, infant feeding, and navigation.
Travel Avoided
Home-based visits could replace journeys for support that did not require an in-person examination.
Provider Capacity
Virtual clinicians handled appropriate education and routine support, preserving physician appointment time for higher-acuity needs.
Encounter Opportunity
Additional completed, eligible virtual visits could support more billable services where payer and coding rules permit.
04
Return on Investment
Tangible Value Through Access, Capacity & Operational Efficiency
The value of this model is measured in patients reached, appointments completed, travel avoided, and capacity gained—not just dollar savings. By delivering appropriate maternal and infant support virtually, BabyLiveAdvice helped the physician group extend its service area while using onsite clinical resources more efficiently. Increased eligible visit volume may also create additional reimbursement opportunities, subject to payer rules and actual collections.
- Workforce productivity: additional education, navigation, and follow-up capacity without a proportional increase in in-person staffing.
- Transportation relief: fewer patient trips for services safely and appropriately delivered at home.
- Revenue opportunity: additional completed, eligible encounters and associated billed or collected reimbursement.
- Clinic capacity: more physician appointment availability for clinical evaluations and complex care requiring in-person attention.
- Operational efficiency: coordinated virtual scheduling, outreach, and follow-up instead of recreating those functions at every physical location.
Bottom line
Reach more rural Medicaid families, connect parents and babies with support at home, protect valuable physician capacity, and increase opportunities for eligible completed care—without requiring every patient to travel for every touchpoint.