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Women’s Health

Cassie McGrath

Healthcare Brew delivers the latest news and trends in healthcare.

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Breast cancer screening has long been skewed toward older patients who are 

 to be diagnosed with the disease. But in recent years, rates have jumped among younger women.

 among women over 50 each year from 2012 to 2022, rates also rose 1.4% in women under 50, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In fact, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among US women ages 20 to 49, the nonprofit also reported.

That’s why Bailey Renger created BeSound. The startup officially launched on Sept. 30 with $6.8 million in seed funding, co-led by Overwater Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Muse Capital, according to a press release. BeSound aims to detect and prevent breast cancer in young women by providing imaging and results within 24–48 hours for an up-front cost of $350. The process can typically take a few days, the National Breast Cancer Foundation wrote on its site.

Renger, who has a background in physics, was previously a quantum computing research fellow at Harvard University and NASA researcher.

Renger created BeSound due to her own frustrations during a cancer scare. “I 

. I didn’t get an imaging order that I wanted and had to fight for it,” she said.

Once she got the scan, her medical team found a solid mass but couldn’t tell her if it was malignant.

“That’s at the center of BeSound: making imaging more accessible to women with better imaging technology,” she said.

Renger, a young woman herself at 26, spoke with Healthcare Brew about her plans for the company.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Women book ultrasound scans on our website and then find nearby partner locations. Initially, we’ll just have one [in Los Angeles, opening this fall] but as we scale, there’ll be multiple to choose from. A clinician will review eligibility for that scan. It’s a 20-minute scan. It’s radiation free, no pain.

The results are reviewed by a board-certified breast radiologist and displayed in the BeSound platform to women within 24–48 hours of the scan. If there is no finding, that’s the final step. If there is a finding, and if eligible, then there’s an order placed by the clinician for an ultrasound plus near-infrared light, a diagnostic imaging test, and helping to characterize what was found. Is it a cyst? Is it benign? Is it fibroadenoma? Or is it concerning? That second scan helps to reduce unnecessary biopsies and to really just give women peace of mind and empower them with data on what’s actually happening in their body.

What differentiates the company from other breast cancer care?

Today, it’s really difficult for women under 40 to get screening, yet we know they’re getting breast cancer. That’s for a few reasons. Mammography is not reimbursed and is also not recommended for women under 40, unless you’re very high risk. Younger women have more dense tissue, and that decreases the accuracy of mammograms.

We brought on the co-founder of Equinox [Lavinia Errico], and she’s helping with designing the experience, both in person and digitally. We think that’s going to be really important as well because a lot of women today, even if they qualify for a mammogram, they don’t get it because they’re scared or it’s painful or they don’t want exposure to radiation. We think offering a better experience is more conducive to women actually wanting to get screened.

The most expensive part of the scan is the radiologist and their interpretation. If we can help make their jobs easier and help them read more quickly, then we can help to drive down the cost of the scans. There’s really rigorous FDA review, requirements, and clearance that’s involved, so we are not using any AI yet, but that’s on the road map.

Where do you hope the company will be in the next five to 10 years?

I hope that breast cancer screening for younger women is more accessible and that we help to remove the stigma around both screening and just having dense breasts in general. Our larger vision is really to end late-stage breast cancer because that’s how we save women’s lives. I would love to have BeSound available to women across the country, and with the AI that we’re building, that’s actually how we hope to improve accessibility even more. [This includes] driving down the costs—our goal is eventually $150.

We [also] want to expand into ovarian cancer and pelvic ultrasound imaging, all women’s ultrasound-based imaging.

A portrait of founder and CEO of BeSound, Bailey Renger.

Startup BeSound seeks to reduce breast cancer in young women 

Meet Bailey Renger, the 26-year-old founder of BeSound. 

In June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled in 

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

 to remove the constitutional right to abortion, sending the power back to the states.

. Others, like Kentucky, had trigger bans that immediately restricted abortion access (Kentucky’s is a 

 for any stage of pregnancy, except in cases of medical emergencies).

The number of abortions overall has increased in the US, at 1.14 million in 2024 compared to 1.06 in 2023, 

, the Society of Family Planning’s national abortion data-tracking effort that started during the fall of 

 asked citizens to vote on whether they wanted abortion protected in local law. 

 and three did not. But experts told Healthcare Brew the fight for reproductive rights continues whatever the outcome. There are 

 to add federal restrictions to abortion, though those policy efforts have failed thus far.

The three states that didn’t pass abortion ballots were Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

South Dakota declined a state constitutional right to abortion, with 58.6% of voters choosing “no.” Nebraska’s case was a little different, though, as the state rejected (in a difference of 49.01% to 50.99%) establishing the right to abortion until “fetal viability”—which is the point when a fetus can survive outside of the womb—but passed an amendment to protect abortion up to 12 weeks.

In Florida, 57.2% of voters said they wanted the state constitution to include measures to protect patients seeking an abortion.

The problem was the vote needed 60% to pass.

“It feels like the wind has been knocked out of you,” Michelle Grimsley Shindano, director of policy and government affairs at Planned Parenthood of Florida, told us. “You see people just pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into something and literally being 2.8% away from winning. It’s gut-wrenching.”

Florida originally instituted a 15-week ban in 2022, but it was replaced with a six-week ban in May 2024 (with some exceptions), which is now the law of the land in the Sunshine State.

Bans can lead to facility closures, Healthcare Brew previously 

 stopped providing abortion services according to data from reproductive health research organization the Guttmacher Institute.

In Florida, there were 54 abortion care clinics in March 2024, but as of August, there were 42 clinics in the state, according to I Need an A, a website dedicated to helping people find reproductive care.

“This has been extremely difficult for our patient population” and has presented “life-threatening risks,” Michelle Quesada, interim VP of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Florida, said.

Telehealth abortions are also on the rise in the US, as they accounted for about 5% of abortion care from April–June 2022 and a little over 25% by December 2024, #WeCount reported.

On Sept. 19, though, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the FDA is going to review the safety of 

, which is a drug used in medication abortions, 

 that access to abortion could be further limited.

Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York all passed ballot initiatives to protect abortion in their states. But that hasn’t meant abortion is solidly safe there.

States like California, Colorado, and New York have 

 to protect providers from out-of-state prosecution. The Guttmacher Institute 

 patients are traveling out of state at higher rates for abortions across the US: 155,000 people in 2024 and roughly 170,000 in 2023 compared to 81,000 in 2020.

Lawmakers in Missouri tried to ban abortion by 

overturning the abortion-rights amendment

 in July for abortion to be legal up to fetal viability.

Arizona passed adding “the fundamental right to abortion” into its state constitution 61.6% to 38.4% during the 2024 elections. After the fall of 

 in 2022, the state went back to a total abortion ban law from 1864 in April 2024, but the state legislature 

 a couple of weeks later to allow abortions up to 15 weeks.

In Nevada, ballot initiatives to change the state constitution must pass twice. The right to abortion has been protected in state law since 1990 for up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. The 2024 ballot initiative added a protection for abortion up to fetal viability into the state constitution.

But voters have to show up again in 2026 to make sure last year’s ballot goes through.

That’s what Denise Lopez, director of Nevada campaigns for abortion-rights advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, is working on now. It’s a nonpresidential election year and she’s going up against a governor who has 

 a record number of bills, including those related to IVF and paid family leave, so Lopez has her work cut out for her.

“We’re going to have to educate people. We’re going to have to make sure that people turn out to vote for the ballot again,” she said.

Two protesters hold a Pride flag and a sign reading 'Abortion is a human right' during a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, 2022, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion was on the ballot in 10 states last year. Here’s where some of them stand now

The fight for reproductive rights continues, even in states where abortion-related ballots passed. 

Maternal health has long been a challenge in rural areas, with 52.4% of 1,955 rural hospitals not offering obstetric care as of 2022, according to a 

, experts have previously told us access to birthing services is only expected to become more difficult.

New research from Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, and the University of Georgia may provide more insight into why maternal care access is challenged in these areas—namely, due to mergers and acquisitions.

The study, which is a National Bureau of Economic Research 

, found that five years after rural hospitals are acquired, they are 30% less likely to provide obstetric services.

“It is very much a growing and troubling trend in rural communities,” Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer at the nonprofit National Rural Health Association, told Healthcare Brew.

 To conduct the study, researchers pulled M&A information from the American Hospital Association and data analysis firm Irving Levin Associates, and reviewed 467 M&As (317 involving at least one rural hospital) from 2006 to 2019.

There are three main reasons rural hospitals struggle to offer obstetrics care, Cochran-McClain said.

For one, Medicaid covers 47% of all births at rural hospitals, 

, and tends to reimburse providers much less than what commercial insurers do ($8,732 less on average for all deliveries, 

“They’re losing money on the obstetrics services they’re providing,” Cochran-McClain said.

 as a result, she added, noting that lower birth volumes (as fewer people live in rural areas) and low payments make it hard to pay workers and maintain the right equipment for labor and delivery services.

Last, malpractice insurance puts pressure on rural hospital providers, she said. In a 2022 report from independent watchdog the Government Accountability Office, stakeholders said the number of deliveries a provider needed to perform to offset the cost of malpractice insurance (around 100 a year) could be the total amount performed in a rural facility that year.

It’s more likely facilities that are struggling financially are “choosing to or having to” close because there are so many factors “stacked against being able to offer labor and delivery,” Cochran-McClain said.

These challenges can leave rural hospitals open to an M&A deal, too, as it’s sometimes their 

. And health systems can help the rural facility grow market share and access more patients.

There were 128 M&As of critical access centers (a federal designation for certain rural hospitals at least 35 miles from another hospital) between 2010 and 2022, according to 

 from University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and University of Southern Maine researchers.

Cochran-McClain said M&As can bring increased access to equipment, 

, referral networks, and specialty care. But it also means the facilities and communities lose “independent decision-making” about what services to offer or if the hospital will even stay open.

“Obstetrics is definitely a good example of [when] the community may not have the same influence on being able to provide that service as when it was an independent,” she said.

Study: Rural hospitals are 30% less likely to offer obstetric services after acquisitions 

Rural hospitals face low reimbursement and staffing challenges. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to have big implications for hospitals and 

. But experts say it could also impact patient care—specifically, maternal health.

 for maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, according to the 2024 March of Dimes Report Card. Now, the bill is cutting federal spending on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by $1 trillion, 

 beneficiaries potentially without coverage by 2034.

This is a challenge, as Medicaid is the largest single payer for pregnancy-related services, KFF reported in May, covering 41% of births across the country and nearly half of births in rural areas. States with the most rural hospitals are 

 to have reproductive rights restrictions. (For example, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas all have abortion bans and are experiencing a rural health crisis.)

“Medicaid is vital for moms and babies in this country,” Michael Warren, chief medical and health officer at nonprofit March of Dimes, told Healthcare Brew.

Additionally, there’s a growing fear Medicaid cuts will 

 of some rural maternal care units or entire facilities, experts previously told Healthcare Brew. When hospitals close services, 

This means not only are there healthcare workers leaving—or 

 to—these states but there’s also likely to be 

 in places where abortion isn’t allowed.

“We’re at a moment where we need to be doing all we can to think about increasing access and helping people get healthier before pregnancy and have a healthy pregnancy,” Warren said. “Anything we do that takes our foot off the gas is not moving us in the right direction.”

Planned Parenthood is one example of maternal health clinics that may be hit by cuts.

 of a preliminary injunction to stop Medicaid cuts from affecting Planned Parenthood, but the nonprofit organization is still on the chopping block for potential defunding.

Planned Parenthood has been reportedly “targeted” for 

, but the centers provide more than reproductive care, offering preventative and primary care, Monica Skoko Rodríguez, director of medical standards production at Planned Parenthood, told us. 

The organization also treats underserved populations, with 76% of 600 Planned Parenthood centers based in “rural or medically underserved areas,” according to a fact sheet.

If it were defunded, patients could lose access to care like cancer screenings and intimate partner violence screenings, she added, leaving them to turn to hospitals for care instead. Avoidable emergency department visits overall cost the healthcare system an estimated $32 billion each year, 

“They are not going to be able to access [these resources] until things really spiral out of control, and that’s where we see an overload in emergency care systems and hospital systems, when things would have been much better managed much earlier on and would have had much better outcomes for the patient and for the healthcare ecosystem at large,” Rodríguez said.

A black pregnant woman with a medical cross logo glowing behind her

Medicaid cuts could lessen access to maternal health

The US already received a D+ for maternal and infant mortality and morbidity from March of Dimes. 

Now that the Supreme Court officially ruled last week the Trump administration 

 in research grants as part of its defunding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that started in February, universities and hospitals across the country are left scrambling to remain stable.

Healthcare and academic research rely heavily on NIH funding. 

 reported NIH funding drives the economy, bringing in $2.56 for every dollar of spent funding and supporting 400,000+ jobs across the country.

The UMass Chan Medical School laid off or furloughed an estimated 200 employees and cut its incoming fall 2025 graduate class from 70 students to 13 due to cuts, according to the institution. 

The American College of Obstetricians also 

 due to the administration’s anti-DEI push, which it said conflicted with its efforts to reduce maternal health issues.

Still, the White House is set on limiting money across federal agencies, proposing $27 billion in 

—that’s $18 billion less than before—in the Trump administration’s discretionary budget proposal.

Industry and philanthropic dollars can create a lifeline for some research. For instance, Robert Wright, ​​chair of the department of environmental medicine at New York’s Mount Sinai, 

 as an option for environmental health-related research, and the head of AI and engineering at Northwestern Medicine’s cardiovascular institute, Adrienne Kline, received $1.4 million in industry funding from Big Tech to 

. Kline called these industry partnerships a “godsend.”

Despite this, Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy and regulatory counsel at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), said there’s “no replacement” for federal government funding.

“It is hard to overstate how important NIH funding is to scientific progress,” she told us.

Philanthropic organization the Gates Foundation announced on Aug. 4 it would provide $2.5 billion through 2030 to support R&D in women’s health, specifically to address five areas: obstetric care and maternal immunization, maternal health and nutrition, gynecological and menstrual health, contraceptive innovation, and sexually transmitted infections.

Researchers at universities, hospitals, and biotech companies including health tech company Philips Innovation Center, biotech company Vedanta Biosciences, and Massachusetts General Hospital, all based in Massachusetts, will receive funds from the Gates Foundation, Rasa Izadnegahdar, director of maternal, newborn, child nutrition, and health at the nonprofit, told Healthcare Brew.

“Some of the challenges around women’s health have been longstanding. It’s been 

 for a long time,” Izadnegahdar said, noting this as one of the reasons the foundation wanted to pursue women’s health.

And that lack of research is “only exacerbated by the recent cuts in NIH,” he said.

“Our hope is that we create some enthusiasm and optimism in the space,” Izadnegahdar added, and “that others will join in as well.”

Other private contributions have also been made this year, like an $8.6 million donation from the local estate of community leader Donald Coldren to Pennsylvania-based health system WellSpan Health, where the late Coldren and his wife were once patients.

Philanthropic donations bring in an estimated 

 to health and science research, whereas NIH doled out $47.4 billion in 2024.

“It is a very complicated, very hard time in biomedical research,” she said.

Not only did researchers lose their funding but it’s been 

 released from grants that had already been awarded, and the application process for new projects has slowed down, she said. The National Cancer Institute, for example, anticipates it will only be able to fund 4% of grant applicants after October, down from 9%, 

“Our nation decided decades ago to create this relationship between academic institutions and the federal government that had a vision for advancing scientific progress,” Pierce said.

Further, she said other funding sources, like philanthropic or industry sources typically have a specific mission or a commercial end—such as the Gates Foundation’s recent efforts to fund research in specific areas of women’s health—whereas the NIH has been dedicated to improving scientific progress and health advancement broadly.

“There is no replacement for the federal government in terms of the breadth, the scope, the volume of research that it can and has and should fund,” Pierce said. 

Correction 08/29/25: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of employees laid off or furloughed from UMass Chan Medical School in April 2025 and the correct number of incoming students.

Illustration of an open hand with a coin on the left and an open hand in a doctor's white coat with a heart that has a cross in the middle

Philanthropic, industry grants help offset missing NIH grants but cannot fully fill gaps

While the NIH is a driver of new medications, jobs, and economies, funding is still being cut. 

Accessing maternal care in rural areas is 

 don’t even provide birthing services, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.

So the Hope Women’s Resource Clinic, based in Beaumont, Texas, is hitting the road and bringing care to patients.

The maternal health clinic launched a “mobile medical unit” in 2020, and in 2023 switched to a 38-foot van that has two exam rooms, a waiting area, and a lab, Jeanette Harvey, executive director of the clinic, told Healthcare Brew. The mobile unit provides free care for pregnant people and only operates in Texas, mainly serving Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Chambers, and Galveston counties surrounding Beaumont, a city of 115,000+ people.

“There’s nothing like us—nobody that does what we do,” Harvey said.

The mobile unit was created after clinic staff realized how hard it was for patients to reach them without access to public transportation, she said. The 

 reported that 21% of US adults who didn’t have vehicle or public transit access could not access “needed medical care” in 2022.

The facility initially started to provide Lyfts for patients in need of transportation, but soon realized it would be easier to go to them instead, according to Harvey.

It runs Monday through Thursday and serves each area consistently—always Jefferson County on Mondays, for example.

 In Texas, patients can get access to Medicaid coverage if they are pregnant (the Texas Standard reported 

 of 31.3 million Texas residents were pregnant and on Medicaid as of 2022), so a big part of the clinic’s work is conducting the medical testing required to get patients covered.

“If somebody’s trying to get on insurance, they don’t want to go somewhere where they have to pay to get proof that they need to be on insurance,” Harvey said, explaining that people need to provide documentation of pregnancy from a medical examiner to qualify for Medicaid.

The unit conducts ultrasounds and STD testing and also has the Hope Academy, which provides educational resources to parents until their baby turns one, according to Harvey.

At the academy, any parent patient of the clinic can take in-person or online classes about healthy behaviors, like going to the doctor and exercising, in exchange for points that help them access donated baby beds, car seats, diapers, wipes, and formula, Harvey said. The clinic delivers these items via the mobile unit.

Staff includes a medical director, a radiologist, an ob-gyn, registered nurses, licensed sonographers, a life coach, and a licensed counselor. The unit also provides a list of doctors that are covered by Medicaid.

The Hope Clinic does not receive government funding, Harvey said, operating solely on donations.

The clinic served about 3,800 patients in total in 2023, 273 of which were at its mobile unit. The total was nearly 4,700 total last year, 399 of which were mobile patients. It’s on track to treat 500 people through its mobile unit by the end of this year, Harvey said.

Additionally, the Hope Clinic is adding a physical site in Port Arthur, a city in Jefferson County about 30 minutes from the clinic’s main location, Harvey said. Once that building is finalized—they’re aiming for the end of the year, she said—staff will take the mobile unit to another area that’s yet to be determined.

At the Beaumont site, the clinic just opened a 3,400-square-foot parenting center, Harvey said, with the aim of serving parents and babies up to three years after birth.

“That’s where we see a lot more of the need,” she said, “beyond the prenatal.”

Babies do a lot of development in those first three years, which can have lasting effects on their life, the national 

 at Vanderbilt University reported in 2021.

The clinic acquired in 2020 donated property across the street, where it plans to build a shelter to support unhoused women and children. Harvey said the center’s waiting for $500,000 in funding to come through, but once it’s built, the shelter will have a caretaker on-site and operate as sort of a “mini hotel” to allow families to find permanent housing.

R Cody Stringer, senior director of innovation and product development at nonprofit March of Dimes, which has a number of mobile maternity units and works to improve maternal and infant care, said in an emailed statement the vans are “a lifeline for the families without access to appropriate pregnancy care.”

According to March of Dimes, only 2% of mobile health units in the US offer maternity care.

“We need more of these community-based interventions to ensure every mom and baby can access quality care, no matter where they live,” Stringer said.

Blue and white bus that reads Free ultrasound, pregnancy, and STD testing

Hope Women’s Resource Clinic Texas clinic is providing maternity care from a van 

The van travels to five counties in East Texas, helping pregnant people get on Medicaid and access prenatal care. 

This Texas clinic is providing maternity care from a van 

illustrated headshot of caroline catherman, healthcare brew reporter

Caroline Catherman

Getting pregnant can be more expensive than a new car. Don’t believe us? Ask someone who’s done in vitro fertilization (IVF).

According to fertility education site FertilityIQ, a single IVF cycle is $23,000+ depending on location and whether services like medication and pre-implantation genetic screening are included. Patients complete an average of 2.3 to 2.7 cycles, which can total up to $50,000.

And it’s a growing industry: The US fertility industry is set to increase from $5.3 billion in 2023 to $8.7 billion by 2033, according to market research and consulting firm Precedence Research.

, and offer programs that provide refunds if IVF is unsuccessful.

San Francisco-based startup Future Family offers both. The company introduced an insurance program in February with a “baby or your money back” guarantee. If a patient using the company’s IVF insurance doesn’t have a live birth after two cycles, they can file a claim and get a refund up to their coverage limit. Depending on the policy, that can be $15,000, $30,000, or $50,000.

“If you fail two cycles, you could lose $40,000–$50,000. It’s a huge amount of money, and it sets you back when you’re starting your family. So it’s really important that we can insure IVF and make sure that if someone does fail, they have an opportunity to try again, or at least get the money back if they’re going to go a different path,” Claire Tomkins, founder and CEO of Future Family, told Healthcare Brew. 

Founded in 2016, Future Family has raised over $148 million in venture capital funding from firms such as Aspect Ventures, Portfolia, and Correlation Ventures. Following the launch of its insurance program, the company announced in April it had secured a $400 million financing program from Clear Haven Capital Management to expand its lending platform.

The price of Future Family insurance is individualized based on each patient’s health information. Patients who are more likely to conceive due to factors like age and lifestyle pay lower premiums, but on average, insurance through Future Family is about 20% of the cost of treatment, Tomkins explained.

“So if you were doing IVF for $40,000 for two cycles, then you’d pay about $8,000 for insurance. But the good news is your $40,000 is protected completely,” she said.

The cost of that insurance premium can also be paid through financing, she added.

There are caveats, though. For instance, the insurance has a time limit: Patients have 20 months to complete two cycles of IVF and transfer viable embryos and 30 months of total coverage, according to the company’s website. For reference, one full cycle of IVF takes about four to six weeks, and most treatment centers recommend waiting at least another four to six weeks between IVF cycles, according to Cleveland Clinic. 

The website also notes there are restrictions on who qualifies. Patients 38 and older can’t get coverage unless they’re using donor eggs, nor can patients who have already started an IVF cycle or have failed to conceive after an IVF cycle in the past.

Separate from this new insurance product, Tomkins says Future Family has also given out $200 million in credit to 10,000 patients through its fertility financing program.

Patients pay $300 to $500 a month on their loans on average, Tomkins added. Interest rates vary and depend on factors like credit score, income, and the loan’s size.

Though it’s not a fertility clinic, Future Family has a nationwide network of fertility clinics it works with.

“People are struggling to figure out the best way to pay for fertility treatment, and then on top of that, they’re trying to figure out, if it’s not successful, what happens next? And so now we’re able to really address that and help consumers,” Tompkins said.