Texas Children’s Health Plan partners with Baylor College of Medicine to address and prevent opioid abuse in perinatal populations

Women of childbearing age have been disproportionately impacted by the opioid epidemic. Consequently, the rates of in utero drug exposure and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome have increased dramatically over the last decade.  In Texas, overdose is the leading cause of maternal death in the first postpartum year.

To prevent and respond to these issues, faculty from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Health Plan were recently awarded funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s grant program entitled Combating Opioid Overdose through Community-Level Intervention (COOCLI).  The project aims include efforts to:

1. Identify high-risk pregnant/postpartum women through the Texas Children’s Health Plan medical and prescription claims data and engage these women with care coordination services to assist them in connecting to treatment, finding alternatives for pain management, and accessing services for themselves and their infants.
2. Adapt Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) training materials for obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) providers through online and in-person modules. Training materials will incorporate nationally recognized best practices as well as local data and resources.
3. Train OB/GYN providers in the Texas Children’s Health Plan network using the adapted modules.

This project builds on previous COOCLI work at Baylor College of Medicine to better understand the policies and practices that dictate how multiple systems (law enforcement, justice, treatment, child welfare, and health care) interact directly with women and infants impacted by perinatal opioid misuse/abuse and interact with one another to form a network of support for these vulnerable families.  Dr. Bethanie Van Horne, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of Research for the Section of Public Health Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, is the project director.