Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2008

L.A. Care Health Plan Awards Grant to LA Best Babies Network to Reduce Perinatal Health Disparities

Grant will fund a collaborative of four clinical sites to promote healthy births among African-American women in South Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, Calif.,  –  LA Best Babies Network, a perinatal network linking more than 100 individuals and organizations, has received a grant from L.A. Care Health Plan totaling $50,000 to address perinatal health disparities among African-American women in South Los Angeles. LA Best Babies Network will work with four clinics in South Los Angeles and provide technical assistance to implement best practice clinical guidelines aimed at reducing health disparities.

“This generous award will enable the four collaborating clinics to build on their dedicated service to the African-American community,” said Carolina Reyes, MD, executive director of LA Best Babies Network. "While rates of preterm birth have improved over the years among certain groups, we still see higher rates among African-American women. This funding will help us do more to support African-American women and their caregivers."

The collaborative of four clinical sites will focus on identifying and managing risk factors for preterm birth. The grant award will fund the development of a toolkit that includes evidence-based guidelines as a way to reduce preterm birth disparities among African-American women, train project teams at the four participating clinics on implementation of screening and treatment practices, and convene these teams on a monthly basis to facilitate shared learning and problem solving.

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About LA Best Babies Network

LA Best Babies Network is a dynamic network linking more than 100 individuals and organizations that are dedicated to improving the health of newborns and their families. Launched as part of First 5 LA’s Healthy Births Initiative, the Network works to ensure that high quality perinatal care and social support is available to all families throughout L.A. County. To achieve this goal the Network focuses on five interrelated strategies of the Healthy Births Initiative: (1) caring for mothers-to-be; (2) improving the quality of perinatal care; (3) creating a network of caregivers and advocates; (4) sharing knowledge and resources; (5) advancing policies that advance healthy births.

About L.A. Care Health Plan
L.A. Care Health Plan is a community-accountable health plan serving Los Angeles County residents through a variety of programs, including Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, L.A. Care’s Healthy Kids, and L.A. Care’s Medicare Special Needs Plan. L.A. Care is a leader in developing new programs through innovative partnerships designed to provide health coverage to vulnerable populations and to support the safety net. With nearly 800,000 members, L.A. Care is the nation’s largest public health plan. For more information, please visit www.lacare.org.