UMMC professor co-chairs national Medicaid/CHIP advisory group

Dr. James Martin, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, has been named co-chair of the National Advisory Workgroup to Improve Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes in Medicaid/CHIP recipients.

The CMS, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, recently appointed Martin and Dr. Mary Applegate, a pediatrician and the Ohio Medicaid medical director, to lead the group, which will include up to 25 individuals representing state Medicaid programs, providers, managed care plans, and other stakeholders. The first group meeting is scheduled for June in Washington, D.C. 

The national advisory group will guide and support states and their partners as they enhance existing efforts or embark on new activities to provide better care, improve birth outcomes, and reduce the cost of care for mothers and infants covered by Medicaid and/or CHIP. It is expected to operate for about two years. 

Martin said it was an honor to have been asked to serve as co-chair of a group tasked with addressing national issues related to improving maternal and infant health.

“It gives me an opportunity to bring to the table both state and national perspectives as an experienced ob-gyn specialist and maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist,” he said.

Last year, Martin began his third and final year as president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a 56,000-member organization that is the leading group of physicians providing health care for women. 

A member of the UMMC faculty for 31 years, Martin is the author of more than 500 scientific publications and communications, many of which address issues related to preeclampsia-eclampsia and atypical forms of this disease such as HELLP syndrome. The Preeclampsia Foundation presented Martin with its Hope Award in 2009 for lifetime achievement in preeclampsia research. 

He is a fellow of both the American Heart Association and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. He is a past president of the North American Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.