On Tuesday, the city of Boston announced that it is teaming up with healthtech startup Ovia Health to provide its 15,000 municipal employees and their families with comprehensive fertility, maternity and family health benefits. The partnership is in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts, and is intended to close longstanding gaps in care equity.
This move seems to be a step in the right direction amid a general lack of maternal and family planning benefits nationwide, which has been an area of growing concern as companies work to attract and retain women employees. Although it is one of the richest countries in the world, the United States is one of just eight countries globally that does not have a mandated paid leave program for new parents. And employer coverage of women’s and family health remains low, disproportionately impacting people of color.
“We’re making a concerted effort to provide better support for women and families to close gaps in care equity, especially for our employees in underserved and Black, indigenous and people of color communities,” Marianna Gil, the director of benefits for the city of Boston, said in a statement. “Collaborating with Ovia Health was an obvious choice for us, as we wanted to implement programs that help our employees and their families navigate health journeys in meaningful ways.”
A Techstars Boston grad, Ovia Health has been a fixture in the city’s startup ecosystem for the last decade, focusing mainly on fertility and the larger “femcare” space. Its research-based programs have reportedly been shown to improve maternal and infant health, close diversity and equity gaps, reduce adverse health outcomes and mitigate wasteful spending for some 2,000 employers and health plans.
The startup has been backed by heavy-hitters like Blue Cross Blue Shield and General Electric, and was acquired by drug development behemoth Labcorp just a few months ago. This appears to be Ovia Health’s first municipal partnership.
“This is an extremely special partnership for us, having founded and grown our company here in Boston,” Gabriela Perez Hobson, the company’s general manager of enterprise, said in a statement. “We care deeply about our community, and we’re so proud that the city trusts us to provide the right tools and resources to build happy, healthy families.”
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