Effect of Cash Benefits on Health Care Spending

February 3, 2026 updated by: Sumit Agarwal, Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)
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.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

3615

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School
      • Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, 02138
        • Harvard University
    • Michigan
      • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109
        • University of Michigan

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment Group
Participants in the treatment group received up to $400 per month.
Other: Cash Benefit
Spending from the cards was not restricted to food but could be spent on anything and anywhere Visa was accepted. The debit cards were credited with the first payment on November 18th, 2020 and the second payment on December 18th, 2020. The program continued with monthly credits through August 2021.
Other Names:
  • Debit Card
  • Guaranteed Income
  • Cash Transfer
Active Comparator: Control Group
Participants in the control group did not receive monthly cash benefits.
Other: No Cash Benefit
No monthly cash benefit.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Health care spending for medical services
Time Frame: 9 months
Total payments to providers for medical services
9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Health care spending in acute care setting
Time Frame: 9 months
Total payments to providers for medical services in the acute care setting
9 months
Health care spending in outpatient setting
Time Frame: 9 months
Total payments to providers for medical services in outpatient setting
9 months
Health care spending for prescription drugs
Time Frame: 9 months
Total payments for prescription services
9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Harvard Medical School (HMS and HSDM)

Collaborators

University of Michigan
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 27, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2021

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 23, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 2, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 5, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 3, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2021P003354

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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