Pennsylvania Pharmacists Are Redefining Maternal and Community Health Care
When a soon-to-be mother in Greene County told her pharmacist she was eight months pregnant and planning to breastfeed, the conversation quickly turned to affordability. She wasn’t sure she could cover the cost of formula as a backup. Her pharmacist, Heather Eddy of McCracken Pharmacy in Waynesburg, didn’t just fill a prescription — she stepped in as a trusted community resource, directing the mother to the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) supplemental nutrition program to ease the financial burden.
That simple interaction is exactly what a new and growing program in Pennsylvania is designed to support.
The MOMENTUM Program: Maternal Care Through Pharmacies
MOMENTUM — Maternal Outreach through Mobile Engagement Navigation, Testing and Unified Medicine — launched last spring through Pittsburgh-based Highmark Wholecare, a Medicaid insurance provider. The program connects expecting and new mothers enrolled in Medicaid with local independent pharmacists who conduct monthly check-in calls, answer health questions, and identify community resources tailored to each patient’s needs.
Eddy, who has an 18-month-old son of her own, knows firsthand how many questions new mothers have. “You could ask your provider, but they might be more difficult to get a hold of and I reach out once a month to check on them,” she said. “Being an independent local pharmacy, we do have that extra relationship and bond with the community that makes this a lot easier to perform these services.”
EngageRx: Making Pharmacist Services Billable
MOMENTUM is part of Highmark’s broader EngageRx initiative, developed in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Care Network — a coalition of more than 200 independent pharmacies operating across 47 counties statewide.
A core issue EngageRx addresses is compensation. For years, pharmacists were answering complex health questions, conducting informal screenings, and connecting patients to community resources entirely for free. These services went untracked and unpaid.
“The problem was that those were never captured. There was nothing tracking that because they weren’t payable services,” said Kelsey Linn, who manages the program. “When you go to a physician and you’re sitting in front of them at a visit, and you ask these questions — that’s a visit. They’re getting billed for their time. Pharmacists weren’t able to do that in Pennsylvania previously.”
EngageRx changes that by reimbursing independent pharmacists for these engagement services, allowing pharmacies to hire staff specifically dedicated to patient outreach — like Eddy, whose primary role is maintaining ongoing relationships with patients between medical appointments.
Connecting Patients to Life-Changing Community Resources
The impact of this reimbursement model extends far beyond prenatal care. Through these pharmacist-led check-ins, thousands of Pennsylvanians are now being referred to local food pantries, Naloxone education programs for drug overdose prevention, and transportation assistance services.
“The reimbursement is really what changes the game here,” Linn said.
Overcoming Hesitation: Screening for Social Determinants of Health
Incorporating social determinants of health screenings — questions about housing, food security, transportation, and income — into routine pharmacy visits was initially met with some resistance. Stephanie McGrath, executive director of the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Care Network, noted that some pharmacists were uncomfortable at first. But the hesitation has largely faded.
Many pharmacists now ask every patient, every day. The screenings have enabled pharmacy teams to identify local support resources that patients may never have known existed, and for more complex needs, they can escalate to Highmark’s dedicated care managers for additional guidance.
“It totally changed the relationship the pharmacy team has with that patient,” McGrath said.
Why Independent Pharmacies Are Uniquely Positioned for This Work
Independent community pharmacies have long held a distinct advantage over larger healthcare systems: proximity and trust. Patients often see their pharmacist more frequently than their primary care physician, and that regular contact creates an opening for meaningful health conversations that go beyond medications.
Programs like MOMENTUM and EngageRx recognize and formalize this existing dynamic, turning neighborhood pharmacies into frontline community health hubs. For pregnant women on Medicaid, new mothers navigating early parenthood, or patients managing chronic conditions, that local connection can make a critical difference in health outcomes and quality of life.
As Pennsylvania continues to expand this model, it signals a broader shift in how the healthcare system values the role of pharmacists — not just as dispensers of medication, but as essential community health partners.
