News, Documents, and Links

Three free text messages are sent directly to your patient's cell phone each week. Messages start at pregnancy and go through the baby's first year. Tips include information on prenatal and infant care, immunizations, postpartum depression, nutrition, oral health, quit smoking, safety and more.

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Drugs & Alcohol

• New Animated Video Series: Understanding the Dangers of Alcohol Use During Pregnancy, Marijuana Use During Pregnancy, and Secondhand Tobacco Smoke (website)
• Many U.S. Women Still Smoke Before, During Pregnancy: Report (website)
  Smoking puts about 300,000 infants at risk each year, experts say
• Millions of Pregnant Women Put Their Babies at Risk With Alcohol: CDC (website)
  Drinking before and during pregnancy can cause lifelong physical, behavioral and mental problems for a child. Yet more than 3 million U.S. women risk exposing their baby to alcohol, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

• Comprehensive Guidebook for Nursing Schools, Degree Programs, and Licensing Requirements in Idaho (website)
• State Board of Midwifery — Proposed Laws and Rules (website)
• State of Idaho Board of Medicine (website)
• State of Idaho Board of Nursing (website)

Information to Help Your Practice

• 14-Hydroxyprogesterone
  Idaho Medicaid will pay the physician office or clinic for either the commercially available drug (Makena) or for the compounded agent. We do have prior authorization criteria, which follows the product labeling but Medicaid allows the provider to choose which formulation they administer. The key is that it is defined as a physician administered drug so is considered a medical benefit and doesn’t go through the Medicaid pharmacy system. The physician buys the drug and bills as a Jcode and the physician receives the reimbursement. I can tell you because offices buy product up front that most use the compounded product. I have heard though that there are some health systems that do not allow their clinics to use the compounded products because of safety and efficacy concerns, but that has not come from us.
  ~Tami Eide, Pharm.D., BCPS
  Medicaid Pharmacy Program Supervisor/Manager
  Idaho Department of Health and Welfare

• Administration of Nitrous Oxide in Labor: Expanding the Options for Women (pdf)

• Nationwide Children's SIDS reduction education (website)
• First Candle Hospital, Safe Sleep Policy Template (pdf)
• Infant Safe Sleep: Efforts to Improve Education and Awareness (pdf)
• Cribs for Kids, Safe Sleep Hospital Certification (website)

• Practice Advisory: Interim Guidance for Care of Obstetric Patients During a Zika Virus Outbreak (pdf)
  The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory, travel advisory and an early release MMWR concerning Zika virus (Zika) and its potential impact on pregnant women and their fetuses. This Practice Advisory reiterates the prevention strategies to minimize exposure to Zika and summarizes the current guidance for management of pregnant women who have been exposed.
• CDC Campaign fights MRSA infections (website)

Intimate Partner Violence

• Workplaces Respond to Domestic & Sexual Violence: A National Resource Center (website)

Child Passenger Safety

• Child Restraint Basics (pdf)
  Download, print, and display this poster showing essential information about child safety seats.