Health and Health Care Utilization Effects of Medical Debt Forgiveness

Completed

Conditions studied: Health Care Utilization, Depression, Anxiety, Subjective Wellbeing

In brief

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.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT04835012

Run by

University of California, Los Angeles

People needed

15008

Starts

2020-11-09

Expected to finish

2021-12-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-04-30

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

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

Where it is running

• Wesley Yin — Los Angeles, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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