Maternal & Child Health Funding Map

What is the program/service?

Medicaid (also known as Medical Assistance) is a major public source of health care services for pregnant women, infants, and children. Medicaid is administered by PA Department of Human Services, Office of Medical Assistance Programs (OMAP) and is funded jointly by the state and the federal government. Medicaid eligibility levels are tied to income guidelines. CHIP provides primary and preventive health care to low-income, uninsured children and youth who are not eligible for or enrolled in Medicaid. CHIP has three payment tiers that provide comprehensive coverage to children and teens up to age 19: free, low-cost, and full-cost, depending on the household size and income.    

Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) provide health plans to recipients of Medicaid. An MCO is a health plan that is focused on managed care as a model to limit costs, while keeping the quality of care high. Nearly all populations covered by Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program are now enrolled in MCOs.

Who provides the funded service?

While there are approval systems within OMAP for a provider to offer care to patients, individuals on Medicaid receive care at hospitals, physician offices, clinics, and in community-based settings.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

For FY 2024-2025, Medical Assistance was funded with $6 million in state funds, $18.1 million in federal funds, and $4 million in other funds including lottery and tobacco settlement funds.

Who benefits?

Medicaid covers approximately 3 million people (adults, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities) in Pennsylvania. This includes 39% of children across the state. Currently, 34% of all births in Pennsylvania are covered by Medicaid. Data for mothers using Medicaid during the perinatal period in PA are not available.

Children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP if their household income does not exceed 314% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).

PA Medicaid provides coverage for:

• Pregnant women with income up to 215% of the FPL for 60 days following the birth of their baby. PA has committed to an extension of one year postpartum coverage through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

• Children of low-income families through age 18. Children are covered up to age one if the mother is eligible for and receiving Medicaid when the child is born.

Advocacy:

Thriving PA aims to educate families about free or low-cost, affordable options for health insurance, as well as to encourage policymakers to expand CHIP for pregnant women and children.

Pennsylvania Health Access Network works to ensure patients have access to high-quality, affordable, equitable healthcare and one of their priorities is defending against cuts to Medicaid. 

Sources:

Kaiser Family Foundation. 2022. “Medicaid & CHIP Indicators.”
March of Dimes. 2021. “Medicaid coverage of births Pennsylvania | PeriStats | March Of Dimes.” Peristats.
PA Data Dashboards & Reports. 2025.
DHS Blue Book. 2024-2025 Executive Budget.
Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. https://www.macpac.gov/publication/chip-spending-by-state/
https://www.macpac.gov/publication/medicaid-benefit-spending-by-state-eligibility-group-and-dually-eligible-status/
PA Data Dashboards & Reports. 2025.

What is the program/service?

The Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant is funding distributed to states since the 1935 Social Security Act. These block grants require that 30% of dollars go to preventive and primary care services for children, 30% support children with special healthcare needs, and the final 30% can be for other populations including pregnant women and mothers. No more than 10% of the funding can be spent on administrative costs. 

Title V services must be delivered within public health systems, they must be data-driven and accountable to performance standards, and they must have strong family partnerships in development, implementation, and continuous quality improvement. Services are guided by a statewide needs assessment that is developed every 5 years and is guided by long-term and medium-term performance measures, along with shorter-term evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies. In PA, the Department of Health Bureau of Family Health administers the funding, guides the needs assessments, and does annual reporting to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration.

Who provides the funded service?

Services are provided by public health systems, which in Pennsylvania are county or municipal health departments. Pennsylvania’s title V plan priority is to reduce or improve maternal morbidity and mortality, especially where there is inequity.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

Every $4 of federal funds must have a $3 local or state matching funds. In 2023, PA received 24.9 million from the federal government and spent 49.4 million in state dollars on maternal child health, meaning 66% of the funds for maternal and child health are state-driven.

In Pennsylvania, Title V funding supports municipal health departments with preconception health and home visiting for pregnant families. It also supports 4th Trimester initiatives to address maternal morbidity and mortality rates along with mental health, substance use, and trauma. In some communities, Title V dollars support prenatal care programs like Centering Pregnancy which offers patient-centered group care. The program supports maternal screenings at well-child visits, doula supports to reduce racial maternal health disparities, and implementation of recommendations of the Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs).

Sources:

Health Resources and Services Administration, Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant
PA Department of Health, Title V Block Grant
Explore the Title V Federal-State Partnership (funding amounts)

What is the program/service?

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program funds evidence-based home visiting programs in PA. Across the state, these models include Child First, Early Head Start, Family Check-Up, Family Connects, Healthy Families America, Nurse Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers, and SafeCare Augmented. OCDEL coordinates grants to organizations that provide evidence-based home visiting services and the entities can use contract funds for a wide range of program expenses including operations and staffing, professional development, quality improvement, and investments in technology.

Services include in-home prevention services to support and empower families with children from birth to age five. Support is provided by trained home visitors, such as early childhood educators, nurses, or parent mentors.

Who provides the funded service?

Professionals representing evidence-based home visiting programs offered through hospitals, clinics, or community-based organizations generally provide the services in the family’s home environment.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

Pennsylvania received $16.3 million in Federal MIECHV dollars for fiscal year 2024. PA home visiting uses a mix of federal and state General Fund dollars to support Evidence-Based Home Visiting programs.

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-2025, Community-Based Family Centers received $34.6 million.

This supports the implementation of evidence-based home visiting in 42 family centers serving 31 Pennsylvania counties. Family centers are designed to offer a variety of community services for parents. The evidence-based home visiting models operating in PA include: Parents as Teachers, Nurse-Family Partnership, Healthy Families America, Early Head Start-Home Based Option, SafeCare Augmented, and Family Check-Up®. This includes MIECHV funding.

In FY 2024-2025, Nurse Family Partnership received $14.1 million.

The Nurse Family Partnership is an evidence-based home visitation program that gives first-time mothers with low-income the support necessary to provide an excellent start for their children. During pregnancy through the child’s second birthday, families receive ongoing nurse home visits conducted by a bachelor level nurse. This includes Federal Medical Assistance (Medicaid) funding.

In July of 2020, Pennsylvania began requiring Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to establish Medicaid Maternal Home Visiting programs or MHV for first time mothers enrolled in Medicaid and parents or caregivers of children with additional risk factors. Some MCOs have contracted with community based organizations that already offer home visiting (either through MIECHV or HRSA Healthy Start) to accomplish these visits, while other MCOs have used internal staff such as nurses or social workers to conduct home visits and may refer to other home visitation programs.

Who benefits?

17,161 children were served by publicly funded, evidence-based home visiting programs in Fiscal Year 2020-2021.

329,650 (40% of all children under age six in low-income families) in PA are not served.

Advocacy:

Childhood Begins at Home educates the public about and advocates for investments in voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs in PA.

Sources:

PA Office of the Budget. 2024. “Commonwealth Budget.” Budget.PA.gov.
PA Partnerships for Children. 2021. “Resources.” Childhood Begins at Home.
"A Closer Look At Medicaid and Home Visiting in Pennsylvania." 2024. Childhood Begins At Home.
HRSA. 2024. "FY24 Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Awards

What is the program/service?

The purpose of Healthy Start is to improve health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy and reduce infant mortality including decreasing racial/ethnic disparities in rates of infant death and adverse perinatal outcomes. Funds can be used for one or both of the following purposes:

1. Provide direct services (such as screening and referrals, case management and care coordination, health and parenting education, and linkage to clinical care) to enrolled participants

2. Convene Community Consortia (formerly known as Communication Action Networks or “CAN”) to develop and implement plans to improve perinatal outcomes

Who provides the funded service?

Grants are awarded to public or private entities that may include community-based organizations, local or tribal governments. Lived experience is prioritized in the workforce.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

In FY 2024, HRSA had 6 Healthy Start Initiative: Eliminating Disparities in Perinatal Health grantees in Pennsylvania totaling $5.9 million.

Who benefits?

Each Healthy Start grantee can tailor interventions to the unique needs of their community and/or target population. Birthing people and families in underserved communities are the ones who receive the services or participate in plans to improve perinatal outcomes.

As an example, in Allegheny County, Healthy Start is a home visiting program that uses multiple evidence-informed and evidence-based curricula, depending on the individual family's needs. These can include Moving Beyond Depression, 24/7 Dads, and Coparenting.

Advocacy:

National Healthy Start Association is a leading voice in support of government policies and programs that serve pregnant women, babies, and families impacted by poor outcomes. They organize a Capitol Hill Day and also provide resources for education and outreach to policymakers at all levels of government.

Thriving PA is a non-partisan, Pennsylvania statewide advocacy campaign that seeks to improve the quality of and increase equitable access to a coordinated system of health supports, including access to comprehensive perinatal health services, children’s health insurance, nutrition supports, Early Intervention Part C and lead screening and abatement.

Sources:

HRSA.gov. 2024. "Healthy Start Initiative: Eliminated Disparities in Perinatal Health."
HRSA.gov 2024. “Find Grants.”

What is the program/service?

Early Head Start (EHS) is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children from birth to age three and their families. Services can be home-based by professionals who visit families homes or center-based, also known as Early Head Start Child Care Partnerships (EHS-CCP), which funds classrooms for infants and toddlers.

Who provides the funded service?

Grantees of the US Department of Health & Human Services are awarded contracts to serve a specific number of infants and toddlers each year. EHS home visiting is provided in the family environment and EHS-CCP is provided in licensed child care centers or home-based providers.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

In FY 2022-2023, Pennsylvania received a federal allocation of $107,685,977 which supported 6765 children with federal dollars. This is the most recent data we have access to for federal EHS. Because state funds for home visiting and child care dollars are often braided into EHS programs, hundreds more children are likely served with those additional sources.

EHS is an evidence-based home visiting and child development program for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers, including young children with disabilities. EHS grantees provide services to pregnant women and families with children prenatally to age 3. Home visiting operates in the family home. EHS-CCP funding goes to licensed child care programs who meet Head Start quality standards, usually equivalent to STAR 3 or STAR 4 in Keystone STARS, Pennsylvania’s Quality Rating and Improvement System.

Funds can be used for program expenses including operations, professional development, quality improvement, and technology investments. 

Who benefits?

Families who are 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL), and in some cases families making up to 130% of the Federal Poverty Line, are eligible for EHS at no cost. 

Home visitors have conversations with parents that promote health and learning such as typical child development and milestones, positive parent-child interactions, daily routines, and household materials that enhance learning for the child. Home-visits also include community connections that can help families access health care and health insurance, nutritional counseling, food assistance, oral health care, mental health services, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and emergency shelter or transitional housing in cases of domestic violence. With these additional connections, the parents, infant, and any siblings are all beneficiaries of the program.

Advocacy:

Childhood Begins at Home educates the public about and advocates for investments in voluntary, evidence-based home visiting programs such as Early Head Start in PA.

Start Strong PA advocates for an expansion of quality, affordable child care, including programs like Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships.

Sources: 

Head Start. 2023. "Head Start Program Facts: Fiscal Year 2023". ECLKC.
PA Office of the Budget. 2021. “Commonwealth Budget.” Budget.PA.gov.

What is the program/service?

The PA Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally funded health and nutrition program. WIC provides supplemental foods and nutrition education at no cost, to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women as well as infants, and children up to age five who are determined to be at nutritional risk. All participants must be at or below 185% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and demonstrate a medical or nutrition risk. The goal of the WIC program is to decrease the risk of poor birth outcomes and to improve the health of children during critical stages of growth and development.

Who provides the funded service?

Providers include hospitals and clinics, county health departments, and community-based settings. The PA WIC program is administered by the PA Department of Health (DOH), and operated by nonprofits and county governments, typically through clinics and local agencies. 

In Allegheny County, the program is administered by the Allegheny County Department of Health.

How much funding is there and how is it used?

PA WIC was funded for $277.9M of federal funds in Fiscal Year 2024-2025.

WIC funds primarily pay directly for participants’ food purchases. A smaller percentage of funds support breastfeeding consultants, nutrition professionals, and administrative costs.

Who benefits?

185,317 individuals are participating in the state’s WIC program as of August 2024. Total participation rate for WIC in PA in 2022 was 40.9%, covering 160,000 of 391,300 eligible participants.

Advocacy:

Thriving PA seeks to improve the quality of and increase access to a coordinated system of health supports statewide. The campaign’s primary goal is to ensure each birthing person and child in PA has the opportunity for affordable, quality health care access. Thriving PA advocates for WIC through its Prenatal and Children’s Nutrition efforts. This campaign advocates for the financial stability and modernization for WIC to ensure food security and nutrition for pregnant women and young children.

Sources:

“A Time to Thrive: Growing Pennsylvania WIC's Impact on Children and Families.” 2021. Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.
PA Bureau of WIC. 2024. “PA WIC Program Data.” Pennsylvania WIC.
Food and Nutrition Services 2002. "National- and State-Level Estimates of WIC Eligibility and Program Reach in 2022." USDA.
Pennsylvania Department of Health. "2024-25 Request for Health Resources". 2024.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/trends-in-wic-coverage-and-participation#Pennsylvania