Health and Health Care Utilization Effects of Medical Debt Forgiveness
1 other identifier
observational
15,008
1 country
1
Brief Summary
The goal of this study is to estimate the direct, causal impact of medical debt on health care utilization, mental health, and wellbeing of patients. The investigators will conduct a survey to measure the impact of the debt forgiveness on health care use, mental health, and wellbeing. The survey will be administered to approximately 17,000 subjects of a recent medical financial intervention. In that prior intervention, a non-profit charity, RIP Medical Debt, purchased and abolished medical debt for a randomly selected about 6,000 (out of the 17,000) individuals. In this current protocol, the investigators will administer the survey, and will compare surveyed outcomes of subjects who received and did not receive the intervention.
Trial Health
Trial Health Score
Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach
participants targeted
Target at P75+ for all trials
Started Nov 2020
1 active site
Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.
Trial Relationships
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Study Timeline
Key milestones and dates
Study Start
First participant enrolled
November 9, 2020
CompletedFirst Submitted
Initial submission to the registry
March 27, 2021
CompletedFirst Posted
Study publicly available on registry
April 8, 2021
CompletedPrimary Completion
Last participant's last visit for primary outcome
December 31, 2021
CompletedStudy Completion
Last participant's last visit for all outcomes
December 31, 2021
CompletedApril 30, 2026
April 1, 2026
1.1 years
March 27, 2021
April 28, 2026
Conditions
Keywords
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcomes (1)
8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) Depression Scale
Scores on the 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale range from 0 to 24, with higher scores indicating greater severity of depression.
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
Secondary Outcomes (9)
Received Needed Health Care
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
Received Needed Rx
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD7) Scale
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
Stress
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
General Health
An average of 12 months after the intervention.
- +4 more secondary outcomes
Study Arms (2)
Treatment
Subjects in this "treatment" group had their medical debt forgiven by a non-profit charity, RIP Medical Debt. This protocol will administer a survey to measure subjects' health care utilization, mental health, and subjective well-being.
Control
No intervention was given to subjects in this "control" group. This protocol will administer a survey to measure subjects' health care utilization, mental health, and subjective well-being.
Interventions
A non-profit charity, RIP Medical Debt, bought and retired medical debt for individuals that were assigned to the treatment group.
Eligibility Criteria
The study population is a probability sample drawn from population of individuals who owe medical debt held by FFAM, a debt collection agency.
You may qualify if:
- Individuals ages 18 and over who owed medical debt to FFAM, a debt collections agency
You may not qualify if:
- Excluded individuals who owed less than $500 in medical debt to FFAM
- Excluded individuals with missing social security numbers
Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.
Sponsors & Collaborators
- University of California, Los Angeleslead
- Stanford Universitycollaborator
- National Opinion Research Centercollaborator
- Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Labcollaborator
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)collaborator
Study Sites (1)
Wesley Yin
Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
MeSH Terms
Conditions
Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)
Study Officials
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Wesley Yin, PhD
University of California, Los Angeles
Study Design
- Study Type
- observational
- Observational Model
- CASE CONTROL
- Time Perspective
- CROSS SECTIONAL
- Sponsor Type
- OTHER
- Responsible Party
- PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
- PI Title
- Associate Professor
Study Record Dates
First Submitted
March 27, 2021
First Posted
April 8, 2021
Study Start
November 9, 2020
Primary Completion
December 31, 2021
Study Completion
December 31, 2021
Last Updated
April 30, 2026
Record last verified: 2026-04
Data Sharing
- IPD Sharing
- Will share
- Shared Documents
- SAP, ICF, ANALYTIC CODE
- Time Frame
- De-identified and confidential IPD will be made available by the on-line publication date of published research.
- Access Criteria
- Access will be limited to researchers for non-commercial uses. Users will also need to certify that no attempt will be made to re-identify participants from the de-identified data.
We will make de-identified and restricted data available to the research community through portals such as the publicly accessible Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (hosted by the University of Michigan). We will preserve the confidentiality of study participants and protect personal health information by stripping the data of personally identifying information and purging it of all personal health information, and any information that is sufficiently fine so that it could identify individuals. We will follow standard protocols, such as converting specific dates to relative dates or date intervals, and aggregating small cells. This will allow us to maximize the data available to researchers while strictly preserving confidentiality and privacy.