Maria Steenland
University of Maryland, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Health care before, during and after pregnancy shapes outcomes for both mothers and babies, and whether a person has health insurance strongly affects whether they get that care. State laws decide who can get public insurance during pregnancy and which pregnancy-related care is legal.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Social Science
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
maternal health
severe maternal morbidity
Medicaid
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Compare rates of severe maternal morbidity and potentially avoidable delivery complications between pregnant people on Emergency Medicaid and those on full-scope Medicaid, using national Medicaid claims data from 2019–2022.
- Estimate how California's 2020 coverage expansion for non-qualified immigrants aged 19–25 affected timely prenatal care, pregnancy complications and birth outcomes, using linked Medicaid and birth certificate data and a difference-in-differences design.
- Evaluate New York's 2023 extension of postpartum Medicaid from 60 days to one year for non-qualified immigrants, using Medicaid claims linked to hospital and safety-net clinic records to compare postpartum care use and health outcomes.
- Build a dataset of hospitalization records from 42 states and Washington, DC (2019–2023) that links inpatient care and health outcomes to each state's abortion restrictions.
- Test whether state abortion bans changed the rate of pregnancy hospitalizations involving severe maternal morbidity, especially among patients with life-threatening pregnancy conditions, by comparing states with and without bans.
More about the research
These rules differ widely from state to state, and many have changed recently. The research measures how these policy changes affect serious pregnancy complications, using large datasets of insurance claims, hospital records and birth certificates. Two projects follow this theme: one on insurance for immigrants and one on abortion bans.
Why it matters
Pregnant people and new mothers whose access to care depends on state law could benefit from this evidence. This includes immigrants who cannot get regular Medicaid and residents of states with abortion bans. The findings could show whether extending insurance before and after pregnancy improves prenatal care and birth outcomes. They could also show whether abortion restrictions raise rates of serious complications. State and federal policymakers could use this population-level evidence to protect health during pregnancy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jean Guglielminotti
Columbia University, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether the 2010 ACA Dependent Coverage Provision, which expanded private insurance to people under 26, is associated with lower severe maternal morbidity during childbirth, using Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project data.
Diana Foster
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Compare long-term health and economic outcomes among people who had an abortion before a state ban, traveled to an out-of-state clinic, sought abortion outside the legal medical system, or carried to term, using multilevel regression on longitudinal surveys.
Kara Zivin
University of Michigan, MI·Public Health & Epidemiology
Identify patient-level clinical characteristics linked to mental health care use, overall perinatal care and delivery outcomes among women with diagnosed PMAD, and estimate national and state disparities, using Medicaid and Optum insurance data.
The school
University of Maryland: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 602 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.