Date and Time
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2025 | 2 PM ET/11 AM PT | VIRTUAL
Speaker
Jordana Frost, DrPH, MPH, CPH
Deputy Director, Institute for Medicaid Innovation
Read Bio
Jordana Frost, DrPH, MPH, CPH, serves as Deputy Director at the Institute for Medicaid Innovation. In this senior leadership role, she guides the strategic direction of the organization’s programmatic and analytical portfolio while working closely with the founding executive director and governing board to lead cross-functional operations and strategic business development priorities. Prior to joining IMI, Jordana spent nine years at March of Dimes, leading teams of employees, volunteers, and cross-sector partners in planning, resourcing, and implementing initiatives to reduce preterm birth and advance maternal health equity.
Dr. Frost has also supported families as a childbirth doula; provided lactation counseling in a community health center; managed home visiting services for Medicaid enrollees and WIC recipients; led health literacy initiatives supporting recent immigrant communities; taught graduate public health students; and facilitated wellness programs for local government employees.
A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served as a Business Development volunteer in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Dr. Frost earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Indiana University, a Master’s in Public Health from the University of South Florida, and a Doctorate in Public Health from Boston University, where she researched perinatal health services and equitable access to high-value, high-quality maternity care models. Her doctoral research, in particular, was focused on midwifery-led birth centers that took deliberate steps to diversify their client mix to increase Medicaid-covered individuals and patients who identify as a member of a minoritized group.
Event Description
The midwifery-led birth center care model continues to gain attention due to rising interests in identifying and scaling high-quality, high-value models of care that improve pregnancy outcomes, lower health care expenditures, and reduce disparities. Funders, health care administrators, policy makers, midwives, collaborating physicians, and other system partners have an interest and role in supporting the acceleration of equitable access to midwifery-led birth center care, particularly for individuals with low-risk pregnancies who stand to benefit the most from utilizing this model of care but do not yet have access to it. Freestanding birth centers continue to optimize ways in which they can stabilize and become sustainable long-term, while diversifying their client mix to include more Medicaid-insured patients. An innovative pathway to mitigate threats to sustainability and expand access for Medicaid-insured patients is integration with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Dr. Frost will share an overview of the benefits and drawbacks of this integrated model, as well as opportunities for coordinated investment efforts in support of this innovative solution.