Four Questions with Neel Shah
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Neel Shah is the President of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America, an ambitious $100 million project backed by philanthropist Olivia Walton. The organization, based in Arkansas, has one goal: cut the U.S. maternal death rate in half in five years. Second Opinion's Ruth Reader spoke with Shah about how he plans to achieve this goal and what he thinks about payment changes in payment for maternity care could raise costs for patients.
Ruth Reader: You've cofounded this effort How are you going to halve maternal mortality by 2031?
Neel Shah: If we just got Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma to the median, we’re most of the way there. I think there’s something really powerful about it not coming from a coast, but being situated in the heartland.
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