A Randomized Trial of Effects of Parent Mentors on Insuring Minority Children

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Uninsured Children Eligible for Medicaid or CHIP

Treatments: Behavioral: Parent Mentors

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01264718

082010-138

Details and patient eligibility

About

The Kids' HELP trial rigorously documented that a Parent Mentor intervention results in multiple benefits: more children are insured faster, children's access to healthcare and parental satisfaction improve, quality of well-child care is enhanced, thousands of dollars are saved per child, jobs are created, disparities are eliminated, and the intervention potentially could save our nation billions of dollars.

Full description

Background: Six million US children are uninsured, despite two-thirds being eligible for Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and minority children are at especially high risk. The most effective way to insure uninsured children, however, is unclear.

Methods: We conducted a randomized trial of the effects of parent mentors (PMs) on insuring uninsured minority children. PMs were experienced parents with >=1 Medicaid/CHIP-covered child who received 2 days of training, then assisted families for 1 year with insurance applications, retaining coverage, medical homes, and social needs; controls received traditional Medicaid/CHIP outreach. The primary outcome was obtaining insurance 1 year post-enrollment.

Enrollment: 329 patients

Sex: All

Ages: Under 18 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. The parent/guardian is a primary caretaker of a least one child 0-18 years old who currently has no health insurance
2. The parent/guardian self-identifies the uninsured child as Hispanic/Latino, African-American/Black, or both
3. The uninsured child is eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
4. The parent/guardian is willing to be contacted monthly by telephone, or in the form of a home visit (if no functioning telephone is present in the household).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

329 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

After randomization to the control group, minority low-income parents of uninsured, Medicaid/CHIP-eligible children received only traditional Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) outreach and enrollment.

Parent Mentors

Experimental group

Description:

After randomization to the Parent Mentor group, minority low-income parents of uninsured Medicaid/CHIP-eligible children received face-to-face instruction and guidance from Parent Mentors on obtaining and keeping Medicaid/CHIP for their child; getting a doctor, dentist, and pharmacist; and addressing social determinants of health.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Parent Mentors