The Mississippi State Department of Health’s home visitation program for high-risk infants and mothers will resume under a new model beginning in July and accept patients in 10 counties.
The care management program called Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies previously served the entire state and stopped accepting patients in January.
The selected counties are Adams, Alcorn, Forrest, George, Jones, Lauderdale, Neshoba, Oktibbeha, Panola and Pike, Greg Flynn, a department spokesperson, told Mississippi Today.
The Health Department does not have the resources to provide home visitation services to expectant mothers and their infants in all 82 counties, State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney told reporters following an April 8 Board of Health meeting. The new pilot model aims to reduce infant mortality rates by focusing on counties that lack comparable services.
“We identified 10 counties with no home visitation coverage, and we’re plugging into those 10 counties,” Edney said.
The program serves high-risk mothers and infants by providing home visits, health education and referrals to wraparound services and benefits. Mothers qualify if they meet certain criteria, including chronic illness, substance use, unsafe living conditions or teen pregnancy. Infants may qualify if they were born prematurely, underweight or with medical complications.
In August, the Department of Health declared a public health emergency in response to the state’s rising infant mortality rate — already the highest in the nation. In 2024, the state’s infant mortality rate was near twice the national average, and 323 infants died before their first birthday. Mississippi also has one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates.
Infant mortality disproportionately affects Black infants, who are three times more likely to die than white infants, according to the Health Department’s review of 2023 and 2024 data. In 2024, when Mississippi’s infant mortality rate reached a 10-year high, white infants experienced their lowest mortality rate in a decade.
Strengthening the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program is one of the agency’s key measures in its multi-pronged response to the crisis, according to its emergency declaration announcement.
Edney told Mississippi Today in January that while Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies previously served moms and babies “wonderfully,” it failed to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates.
The program’s new service area only includes one county — Panola — in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the state that suffers from some of the highest rates of infant mortality. Edney said Delta counties already receive similar services.
“It may be surprising to many folks that the Delta counties are well covered with home visitation programs outside the Health Department,” Edney said. “So, we don’t have the resources to duplicate.”
Desiree Norwood is the program director for Plan A Health, a clinic that provides primary and reproductive health care to patients in the Delta regardless of their ability to pay at mobile clinics, telehealth appointments and a brick-and-mortar location in Louise.
Plan A’s Healthy Families, Healthy Futures program supports families from pregnancy through early childhood by providing healthcare, resources and supplies to families with babies up to 18 months old.
Desiree Norwood with Plan A prepares for patients to arrive at the Plan A clinic in Louise, Miss., Friday, July 1, 2022. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Norwood said Plan A previously referred clients to the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program. She said the program’s sudden pause in January took her by surprise and has been a loss for the Delta.
While several programs in the region work to increase families’ access to prenatal and postpartum support, Norwood said the Health Department has access to additional resources and funding that can greatly help the region.
“How can we afford to lose another program?” Norwood asked. “We need boots on the ground. We need all hands on deck.”
Participants in areas that are no longer covered by the program will be referred to alternative home visitation services, such as Healthy Start and Medicaid services, Flynn previously told Mississippi Today.
Flynn also said the program’s new version will rely on community health workers for home visitation rather than nurses. The model will use a team-based approach with registered nurses administering clinical oversight and health education, licensed social workers connecting patients to resources and community health workers providing regular support to participants.
Officials have not clearly explained the policy decisions that resulted in the overhaul of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program. Edney told Mississippi Today in January the change emerged after Mississippi Division of Medicaid transferred the primary financial responsibility for high-risk prenatal care to managed care, a shift the agency considered for a year. These private companies provide services to more than half of Medicaid beneficiaries
Mississippi Medicaid spokesperson Matt Westerfield did not respond to several requests for comment from Mississippi Today in January and February about the policy change. Flynn declined to provide additional details about the change and directed Mississippi Today’s questions to the Division of Medicaid.
Many counties selected for the new pilot program had some of the highest usage of its services between 2021 and 2025, according to Health Department data. Lauderdale, Alcorn, George, Jones and Forrest counties all served over 100 mothers and infants during the five-year period.
The Mississippi counties with the highest infant mortality rates from 2015 to 2024, which include Quitman, Attala, Washington, Claiborne and Holmes counties, were not selected for the program.
