In 2023, the General Assembly appropriated $4 million to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant to administer a program to increase access to contraception. The Virginia Contraceptive Access Initiative (CAI) offers contraception to uninsured patients whose income is below 250 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Originally launched as a pilot program in 2018, this program is designed to prevent unintended pregnancies and improve maternal and child health outcomes. VDH is required to submit a report by September 1 of each year to the Governor, the Chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget that describes the program, metrics used to measure results, actual program expenditures, and projected expenditures. This report fulfills this mandate for 2024. The report includes final data about the CAI program from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 (State Fiscal Year (SFY) 23) and preliminary data about the program from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 (SFY24). Main points are listed below.

FINDINGS

1. VDH currently contracts with 18 qualified health providers across the Commonwealth.

2. VDH provided funding for 6,238 patient encounters during SFY23 and 4,416 patient encounters so far in SFY24.

3. VDH continues to partner with the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to maximize member awareness of available family planning resources in the community. Given the known positive public health impact of making family planning services available to patients regardless of ability to pay, VDH anticipates that the CAI will continue to result in positive health outcomes. To evaluate this, VDH monitors both patient-level and aggregate-level data. Virginia’s drop in unintended pregnancy rates temporally coincides with the CAI’s launch and subsequent expansion. Vanderbilt University’s external evaluation of the program confirmed lower natality rates in areas served by the CAI. The full evaluation will be added as an addendum to the 2025 CAI report, as it has not yet been published.