The medical care you receive at a Massachusetts hospital may save your life. That’s a well-known fact. But the non-medical care that hospitals provide every day in their communities can have a beneficial effect on your health as well. An innovative program embedded in the pediatric primary care clinic at Boston Medical Center provides one such example of how hospitals are using atypical methods to improve health.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) each year provides more than $66 billion in tax benefits to low-income working families. According to the non-partisan research and policy institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the EITC has been linked to improved infant birth weight, lower premature birth rates, less maternal stress, higher employment rates of single mothers, improved kindergarten through grade 12 school performance, higher graduation rates, and increased future earnings.
The problem is that a lot of eligible families don’t know about the credit or have trouble filling out the forms. And the fees charged by commercial tax preparation businesses dilute the EITC refunds families can receive.
In a recent article in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from the Combined Residency Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and from Boston University School of Medicine write about the StreetCred program embedded in the primary care clinic at Boston Medical Center.
According to the article, here is how it works:
“StreetCred volunteers and staff called families with upcoming pediatrician appointments to (1) remind families of their appointment, (2) offer free tax preparation during their appointment, and (3) tell families what tax-related documents to bring to their appointment. When a family arrived to the clinic, StreetCred volunteers collected the family’s documents and began the tax return while the family waited on and saw their pediatrician. Most tax returns were completed in approximately 20 minutes. After seeing the physician, the family returned to review, sign, and submit their tax return alongside StreetCred staff. During the 2016 tax season, StreetCred’s pilot program provided free tax preparation to 186 families and, ultimately, returned more than $400,000 to low-income working families, including several Boston Medical Center employees. Set-up and implementation costs totaled less than $20,000, mostly in staff salary expenses; thus, for every $1 we spent, we returned $20 to poor families. Pilot year revenues came from grants, corporate donations, and grassroots fundraising.”
Write researchers Michael K. Hole, M.D., Lucy E. Marcil, M.D., and Robert J. Vinci, M.D., “The trust and regular contact between families and their children’s medical professionals present a special opportunity to screen for and address the social determinants of health.”