In New Orleans this month, prenatal care is stepping out of clinic waiting rooms and straight into living rooms. Two new efforts are quietly overhauling how pregnant people and new parents get help at home, according to NOLA.
Nest Health’s Nest Origin program will send certified nurse midwives into the homes of Medicaid patients for routine prenatal visits. At the same time, an expanded Family Connects home visiting effort is designed to keep babies and new parents supported after they head home from the hospital.
With Nest Origin, routine prenatal care happens at home through about 34 weeks of pregnancy. The program starts with a roughly 45 minute assessment that is scheduled between six and 10 weeks. Patients receive a blood pressure cuff, a scale and a handheld fetal heart device to use between visits. Midwives continue visiting for the first six weeks after birth and coordinate delivery planning with hospital teams.
The program expects roughly 100 patients in its first year and has AmeriHealth Caritas as its Medicaid managed care partner. It plans to coordinate anatomy ultrasounds and obstetric consults with LSU Health. Early results from the related Family Connects model have already shown cost reductions for Medicaid families, according to NOLA.
Nest Health, founded by former state health secretary Rebekah Gee, launched the prenatal offering as part of its broader in home care platform and says managed care organizations pay a case rate per pregnancy. “We need to change the care model, and change the way that women think about being cared for in pregnancy,” Gee told Fierce Healthcare. The outlet reported that Nest has seen reductions in emergency department use and a 2:1 return on investment for one Louisiana payer, and that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania will study Nest Origin’s outcomes.
Why It Matters Locally
Louisiana relies heavily on Medicaid to pay for births and continues to struggle with timely prenatal access, a gap programs like Nest Origin are trying to narrow.
A 2025 audit by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor found that the share of women who did not receive first trimester care climbed to 25.9% in 2023. Among pregnant Medicaid beneficiaries, 76.4% lacked timely prenatal care. The same report notes that about 61.6% of Louisiana births are funded by Medicaid, which underscores how much impact a Medicaid focused program could have.
How the Home Visits Work
Instead of brief, rushed appointments, clinicians conduct longer, problem focused visits in patients’ homes. They combine physical checks with screening and social needs assessments, which lets them address issues like transportation, housing or food concerns alongside blood pressure readings and fetal heart tones.
Nest coordinates closely with hospital obstetric teams so that higher risk patients still receive in clinic imaging and specialist consultations when needed. Teams return after birth for postpartum infant care and lactation support, an approach that helps bridge the traditional gap between delivery and follow up, according to Fierce Healthcare.
Who Pays And What Is Changing For Insurers
Right now, managed care organizations pay Nest a case rate per pregnancy. The company says that arrangement gives nurses and midwives room to address both medical and social needs without sending patients back and forth for multiple office referrals.
Looking ahead, the financing landscape is set to shift further. Louisiana lawmakers have voted to require commercial insurers to cover house calls beginning Jan. 1, 2027, a move supporters say will make it easier to scale home based maternity care, as reported by NOLA.
What To Watch Next
Local health leaders will be watching whether these home visits improve early prenatal enrollment, cut down on emergency department use and strengthen postpartum follow up.
Observers will also track whether the model expands to additional managed care plans and whether it reaches the pregnant people who have historically missed early care, particularly those covered by Medicaid.
