Reassembled Maternal Mortality Review Committee will review 2023 data in next report, due Jan. 31

Newly reassembled after Idaho lawmakers let it disband, a group of Idaho medical experts is preparing a report about pregnant moms who died in 2023.

The Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee met Thursday for the first time since being disbanded in 2023.

The committee’s next report is due to the Idaho Legislature by Jan. 31, as required in the new Idaho law that re-established the group.

The review committee’s purpose has been to identify, review and analyze maternal deaths in Idaho — and offer recommendations to address those deaths.

The committee’s last report, using data from 2021, found Idaho’s maternal mortality rate nearly doubled in recent years — and most of those deaths were preventable.

The committee was previously housed in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. But the new law that reinstated it placed the committee under the Idaho Board of Medicine, which licenses doctors.

The committee is working to first address maternal death cases in 2023, and will then look into 2022 cases, Idaho Board of Medicine General Counsel Russell Spencer told the Sun in an interview.

That’s “because the Legislature would like the most up to date” information available, Idaho Board of Medicine spokesperson Bob McLaughlin told the Sun in an interview.

Idaho has several laws banning abortion. In the 2024 legislative session, Idaho lawmakers didn’t amend those laws, despite pleas from doctors for a maternal health exception.

How Idaho’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee works

The review committee, under the Department of Health and Welfare, analyzed de-identified medical records, health statistics, autopsy reports and other records related to maternal deaths.

The committee’s work “was not intended to imply blame or substitute for institutional or professional peer review,” according to a Health and Welfare website. “Rather, the review process sought to learn from and prevent future maternal deaths.”

The reinstated committee, under the Board of Medicine, will still analyze de-identified cases. The cases “will not be used for disciplinary actions by the Board of Medicine,” the board’s website says.

An advisory body to the Board of Medicine, the review committee is meant to “identify, review, and analyze maternal deaths and determine if the pregnancy was incidental to, or a contributing factor in, the mother’s death,” the Board of Medicine’s website says.

The board’s website says the committee report “will provide insights into maternal death trends and risk factors in Idaho year over year.”

Next Idaho maternal mortality report to include 2023 data

The review committee hasn’t yet fully reviewed or published findings from Idaho maternal deaths in 2022 and 2023.

In 2023, 13 Idaho maternal death cases were identified for review, and 15 cases were identified in 2022, Spencer told the Sun.

But he said the actual number of maternal death cases to be reviewed could be reduced, for instance, if the person wasn’t pregnant or if the death occurred outside of the year the committee was analyzing.

Spencer told the Sun the committee has already reviewed seven of the 13 maternal death cases identified in 2023.

The committee will also work to ensure that each case is “correctly associated with maternal mortality,” he said.

“If so, then it will go in front of the committee, and the committee and the committee will determine whether it was related to the pregnancy or if it was incidental to the pregnancy,” Spencer said.

The committee plans to meet three times this year, including last week’s meeting, he said.

The committee will likely review 2022 data in the first half of 2025, while it awaits the 2024 data, McLaughlin told the Sun in an email.

“It usually takes a full calendar year to receive relevant documents, input data, and have committee meetings,” he said. “We are doing everything in our power to review 2022’s data as soon as possible, along with the cases from 2023 and the expected cases for 2024 coming to us in 2025.”

How Idaho lawmakers reinstated the committee

In summer 2023, Idaho became the only U.S. state without a maternal mortality review committee, after state lawmakers let the committee disband by not renewing it.

In 2024, the Idaho Legislature reinstated the maternal mortality review committee through a new bill, House Bill 399, that widely passed both legislative chambers before Gov. Brad Little signed it into law.

Work to revive the review committee started soon after Little signed the new bill into law on March 18, McLaughlin told the Sun in an email before the meeting.

The Idaho Board of Medicine hired a coordinator for the review committee, who started Aug. 5, and worked to ensure the committee had access to data to conduct the work, such as receiving information to start case review from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Bureau of Vital Statistics and working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to execute a data sharing agreement and memorandum of understanding” for its database, McLaughlin told the Sun.

Idaho Medical Association CEO Susie Keller said in a statement that the association was grateful to the Legislature for reinstating “this important health care resource for women and families.”

The medical association “commends the Idaho Board of Medicine for meeting the challenges of re-establishing” the review committee, Keller added.

Who’s on the committee now?

The reinstated Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee includes a mix of health care professionals, including doctors, midwives, a nurse and a paramedic.

The members are:

• Dr. Andrew Spencer, a maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialist
• Faith Krull, a certified nurse midwife
• Jeremy Schabot, deputy director of training and safety at Ada County Paramedics
• Dr. John Eck, a family physician in Boise
• Joshua Hall, the Nez Perce County coroner
• Dr. Julie Meltzer, who specializes in OB/GYN care
• Krysta Freed, a licensed midwife
• Linda Lopez
• Dr. Magni Hamso, the medical director for Idaho Medicaid
• Dr. Spencer Paulson, a pathologist
• Tasha Hussman, a registered nurse

On Thursday, the committee named Eck as chair and Spencer as vice chair, on voice votes without any opposition.

The committee then entered executive session — where the public is not allowed to attend — to review cases.

The previous iteration of Idaho’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee conducted most of its work in executive session, similar to other states, McLaughlin told the Sun in an email.

“To do its work, the (Maternal Mortality Review Committee) must review records of hospital care, psychiatric care, and other medical records, all exempt from disclosure” under Idaho law, McLaughlin said. “We also want to encourage open and free discussion among the members of the committee, which an executive session helps to promote.”

Two past committee members re-applied, but weren’t selected

Four of the review committee’s current members had served on the Idaho Maternal Mortality Review Committee when it concluded its final report in 2023, including Hamso, Meltzer, Freed and Krull.

But two doctors who had previously served on the committee applied and were not selected. Both of those doctors — Dr. Stacy Seyb and Dr. Caitlin Gustafson — have been involved in lawsuits against the state of Idaho or state government agencies related to Idaho’s abortion bans.

Upon request, the Idaho Board of Medicine provided the list of committee applicants to the Idaho Capital Sun. But McLaughlin said the Idaho Public Records Act did not allow the state medical licensing agency to “provide a more specific answer” about reasons applicants weren’t selected.

The head of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, in a statement, said the organization was “deeply invested” in the review committee’s work.

“The IAFP is deeply invested in the continued work of the (Maternal Mortality Review Committee) in its new iteration and hopes to see the high-quality data analysis and reports that were provided by previous (review committees). This work is crucial to supporting maternal health and well-being in Idaho,” organization executive director Liz Woodruff said in a statement.

Russ Barron, administrator of the Board of Medicine’s parent agency called the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, made the appointments “in consultation” with the Board of Medicine, McLaughlin told the Sun.

Committee members were selected based on their education, training and clinical expertise, the Board of Medicine’s website says.

Asked why some past review committee members weren’t selected to serve on the new committee, Spencer told the Sun, “there’s nothing wrong with anybody who wasn’t on.”

Spencer said he couldn’t discuss reasons why specific people weren’t selected.

“We’re very, very grateful for everybody who’s ever served on this committee. We had enough interest in the committee that we were able to fill the different slots with people who hadn’t served before and provide new perspectives,” he told the Sun.

This article was written by Kyle Pfannenstiel of the Idaho Capital Sun.