Thirty-eight weeks into what had been a normal, healthy pregnancy, Meredith Jones* was preparing for an uneventful delivery. Then at a routine OB appointment, her blood pressure reading came back high.
Meredith wasn’t alarmed. Working in the maternal health space herself, she was well aware that blood pressure can spike near the end of pregnancy. Armed with guidance from her care team and information from the Babyscripts app, she knew what to look out for. And with no history of hypertension or warning signs like swelling, headaches, or vision changes, she didn’t see an immediate cause for concern. But she made a mental note to keep watching her numbers.
That evening, she took a reading at home using the blood pressure cuff provided through Babyscripts. It was higher than the first. Still asymptomatic, Meredith began mentally preparing for a delivery that might not follow the original plan. She went to bed intending to check again in the morning.
The next reading: 159/90.
She waited 15 minutes, took a few deep breaths to try to relax, and took it again — 160/91.
At that point, Meredith called labor and delivery triage. She was admitted to the hospital shortly after, where nurses confirmed what she had suspected: she had preeclampsia. After induction and a long, drawn-out labor ending in a C-section, Meredith and her husband met their healthy baby boy, born at exactly 39 weeks.
Meredith’s outcome was a best-case scenario — but it didn’t happen by chance. She had the knowledge to recognize the risks, the technology to monitor her health at home, and the good fortune of receiving care in California, where maternal mortality rates are among the lowest in the country and where there is robust support for innovations like remote patient monitoring.
That’s not the reality for most people giving birth in the U.S. today.
Hypertension rates in pregnancy Are rising
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) — including preeclampsia — are on the rise, now among the leading causes of maternal death. In fact, women giving birth today are more than twice as likely to experience HDP than their mothers. That number is even higher for Black women. These conditions are often silent, with high blood pressure the only warning sign — a sign that can be easily missed without regular monitoring.
As in Meredith’s case, remote patient monitoring can radically improve the odds. By equipping patients with home blood pressure cuffs and the education to understand their readings, RPM makes it possible to catch serious complications before they become life-threatening.
RPM IS A SOLUTION, BUT ACCESS IS LAGGING
But access to remote patient monitoring is far from equitable. In many states, Medicaid reimbursement rates for RPM services fall significantly below the benchmarks set by the CMS National Physician Fee Schedule, despite equivalent clinical value.
This discrepancy creates a two-tiered system: Medicaid beneficiaries — who already face higher rates of maternal health complications — are less likely to receive access to RPM tools that are readily available to patients with Medicare or commercial insurance.
The consequences are serious. In Tennessee, for example, maternal health-related deaths among individuals covered by TennCare occurred at nearly three times the rate of those with private insurance — a gap that reflects broader disparities in access to care and timely intervention.
REIMBURSEMENT ISSUES SPAN INSURERS
And it’s not just a Medicaid issue. Some commercial insurers, while technically listing RPM as a covered benefit, frequently deny claims or fail to reimburse providers in practice. This leaves many clinics and health systems unable to sustain RPM programs, even when they’ve proven effective — particularly in low-resource settings that serve high-risk populations.
Meredith was fortunate — but life-saving tools like RPM shouldn’t come down to geography, insurance type, or luck.
To truly address the maternal health crisis, we must expand access to remote patient monitoring for all pregnant patients, regardless of insurance coverage. That means ensuring Medicaid reimbursement keeps pace with Medicare and that commercial plans not only list RPM as a covered benefit but actually honor claims. State policies must also support the adoption of proven technologies to manage conditions like hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Every patient deserves the chance to catch complications early, to be heard when something feels off, and to bring their baby — and themselves — home safely.
*Name changed to protect patient privacy
Patient stories and case studies are a compelling testament for remote blood pressure management in pregnancy. But its value doesn’t rest in anecdotes. Download our white paper to learn about the scientific data supporting medical necessity for remote patient monitoring in maternal care.
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