CrossOver Healthcare Ministry staff physician Danielle Avula examines Lorena, a patient. (Patty Kruszewski/Henrico Citizen)

CrossOver Healthcare Ministry has received three large grant awards from local foundations to support its women’s health and OB program. The grants will help expand and enhance CrossOver’s women’s health program and prenatal care.

Virginia recently expanded Medicaid coverage to low-income pregnant women, regardless of documentation status, as of July 1, 2021. Now, almost all of CrossOver’s prenatal patients are eligible for Medicaid coverage, according to organization officials.

CrossOver’s OB program has served about 200 pregnant women on-site and supported the delivery of 125 babies at local hospitals. The majority of those patients speak Spanish. Now, with Medicaid expansion and the recent grant awards, CrossOver officials hope to expand the program to at least 350 women this year.

The grants came from:

• the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which awarded CrossOver almost $94,000 to support the hire of a part-time nurse practitioner/physician assistant who specializes in women’s health/prenatal care to provide direct patient care and program oversight. (The grant also will increase access to oral health care and education by increasing the CrossOver dentist’s and dental hygienist’s appointment availability.) The grant is for a one-year period, with eligibility for renewal up to two more years.

• Sentara Cares Foundation, which provided a grant for $100,000 to support the hire of a full-time medical assistant to provide support on the clinic floor for the program and a part-time intake coordinator to enroll all new pregnant patients into CrossOver and in Medicaid, as well as to assist with scheduling appointments and other administrative needs. Funding also is being allocated for equipment and clinical supplies. The grant is for a one-year period.

• Community Health Workers for a Healthy Virginia project, which (through a partnership with Institute for Public Health Innovation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) awarded the organization a multi-year grant for $63,300 to hire a bilingual community health worker to provide care coordination, referral follow up and patient education in the Women’s Health Program and to fund COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. The funding is for a one-year period, with eligibility for renewal up to two more years.

“These grants will be transformational for our women’s health and OB program,” said Julie Bilodeau, CEO of CrossOver. “The combination of these grant awards and these partnerships will expand and enhance the women’s health services, including prenatal and postpartum care, we can provide, and will help improve birth outcomes. This program expansion will help us improve birth outcomes, and support our pregnant clients from their first to fourth trimester. Overall, we are so excited that CrossOver will be able to increase the number of pregnant clients we serve in the upcoming year with high quality care in a medical home setting.”

CrossOver Healthcare Ministry operates two medical clinics for underserved patients; one in the City of Richmond and one in Henrico County. For details, visit www.crossoverministry.org.