Effect of Cash Benefits on Health Care Spending

Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Health Care Costs; Health Care Utilization

Treatments: Other: Cash Benefit; Other: No Cash Benefit

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07381049

2021P003354

Details and patient eligibility

About

During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Chelsea, Massachusetts held a lottery to allocate monthly cash benefits to its residents. Using data from the Chelsea Eats program, the investigators propose to study the impact of the cash benefit on health care spending.

Enrollment: 3,615 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Resident of Chelsea, Massachusetts
• Household income at or below 30% of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Area Median Income

Exclusion criteria

• See inclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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3,615 participants in 2 patient groups

Treatment Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the treatment group received up to $400 per month.

Treatment:

Other: Cash Benefit

Control Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants in the control group did not receive monthly cash benefits.

Treatment:

Other: No Cash Benefit