LEAP
Project status
Collaborators
Joseph Harrison, MS, MBDS
Erica Dixon, PhD
Innovation leads
Funding
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Dean’s Innovation Fund, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
External partners
Accelerate Health Equity
Benefits Data Trust
Opportunity
Although federal and state benefits programs are available to qualifying Philadelphians, $450 million in benefits have gone unclaimed annually.
Emergency departments (EDs) offer a potential setting for identifying individuals with health-related social needs and connecting them to available benefits.
Intervention
In partnership with a public benefits nonprofit and the city-wide initiative Accelerate Health Equity, we conducted a randomized controlled trial called LEAP (Linking ED patients to Assistance Programs) to test whether paper flyers and/or text messages informed by behavioral economics are an effective way to connect patients – specifically, those who visit the ED – with a public benefits navigator. To evaluate the intervention, we will examine whether participants contacted the public benefits enrollment program BenePhilly and applied for benefits such as income assistance, shelter and utility, health care assistance, food/nutrition, and childcare programs.
Impact
The randomized controlled trial launched in November 2023 after a successful feasibility study. Results will be posted here when they are available.
Way to Health Specs
Learn more about the platformInnovation Methods
The concierge
The concierge
By texting participants after their discharge, we gave them the right information at the right time. We sent friendly reminders to help individuals call the social services nonprofit Benefits Data Trust.
