Impact of a Medical-Financial Partnership Intervention on Parent Mental Health, Perinatal Outcomes, and Child Developmental Risk

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Status and phase: Invitation-only; Phase 2

Conditions: Child Development; Mental Health

Treatments: Behavioral: Medical-Financial Partnership Support

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT07064915

UCLA_DHS_MFP_Evolution_2025

1R01HD115000-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Poverty and financial stress are key social drivers of health and root causes of worse health beginning in pregnancy, continuing into childhood, and extending over the life course, but clinical tools to address the health impacts of poverty and financial stress are needed. This trial is of a multi-site medical-financial partnership intervention to examine its effect on parent, perinatal, and child outcomes, as well as health care utilization, and family financial and social risk. This pragmatic randomized clinical effectiveness trial will examine the impact of a clinic-based medical-financial partnership intervention beginning either 1) in the newborn period (Intervention Arm 1) or 2) during prenatal care (Intervention Arm 2) versus controls on parent, child, and family/household outcomes.

Enrollment: 1,200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Being an expectant parent (mother or father) who is either 1) receiving prenatal care or 2) their partner is receiving prenatal care at one of the study's prenatal care clinical sites during recruitment
• Intending at the time of recruitment to have their child receive primary pediatric care at one of the of the study's pediatric primary care clinical sites after birth
• Speaking English or Spanish as primary language

Exclusion criteria

• Cognitive impairment or any other condition that would prevent participation in the intervention
• Foster parents
• Parent age under 18 at enrollment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,200 participants in 3 patient groups

Standard Care Control

No Intervention group

Description:

This arm is the comparison group, which will receive standard prenatal and pediatric care with social needs screening and intervention as provided by the health care team as usual care (no medical-financial partnership intervention).

Medical-Financial Partnership Intervention - Prenatal & Postnatal

Experimental group

Description:

This arm is the first experimental group and participants included in this arm will receive the Medical-Financial Partnership intervention beginning in prenatal care and continuing into the postnatal period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Medical-Financial Partnership Support

Medical-Financial Partnership Intervention - Postnatal

Experimental group

Description:

This arm is the second experimental group and participants included in this arm will receive the Medical-Financial Partnership intervention beginning in the postnatal period.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Medical-Financial Partnership Support