Medical Financial Partnership

Health Care that Invests in Families: The Medical Financial Partnership (MFP) helps parents prioritize their family’s health and increase their income, leading to better health outcomes

Infants and children develop mentally, physically, and emotionally through relationships with their parents and caregivers. When families are under severe stress, it affects both the child and their parents, it can harm their ability to form healthy bonds, and ultimately it threatens healthy development. The most common stressor in most families stems from their finances and the economic pressures on young families, which undermine their mental health, social connections, and health. Yet when parents have the cash, time, care, and connections they need, they can build stable, nurturing relationships for their children to thrive. So, how can busy families best connect to these important economic and social resources? A groundbreaking program integrated into the medical safety net has found an answer that could reshape health care.  

The vast majority of families at all income levels attend their prenatal and pediatric clinic visits, including at least 10 recommended visits during pregnancy and 11 well-child visits during the first 30 months of a child’s life. These visits can serve as powerful access points for families to connect with an array of services beyond traditional medical care, such as financial supports and resources that prevent hunger and housing stress. These services have a well-known benefit to health, but the siloed health care system has been slow to integrate them. 

The Medical Financial Partnership (MFP) model is grounded in the understanding that financial insecurity and stress exacerbate health conditions, hinder medical care, and impact child development, and that supporting economic opportunity is good for family health and child development. In the MFP model, healthcare providers and MFP social workers support parents and children together, ensuring they receive medical care and the financial and social support necessary to improve their overall health and well-being. MFP partners include Los Angeles County Department of Health Services/Pediatrics, UCLA Department of Pediatrics, community-based nonprofit LIFT-Los Angeles, and the families they serve.

“I’m actually very, very thankful that we said yes because that definitely changed our life. It turned our life around for the better.”

– MFP Program participant reflecting on their decision to enroll

The MFP is led by Monique Holguin, LCSW, Ph.D., and Adam Schickedanz. M.D., Ph.D., whose research demonstrates how financial security improves pediatric care, particularly for underserved populations. Integrating MFP-trained social workers into health care clinics helps families navigate complex challenges like medical debt, housing instability, and challenges in accessing public benefits. Resolving sources of economic stress means parents are better able to invest in their family’s health and create nurturing early relationships with their children. 

“I felt like I had a group of supporters that I would just walk into the door and they would just start cheering me on.” 

– MFP Program participant describing how she felt meeting with the program team in clinic

When parents are first enrolled in the program, they work with an MFP social work coordinator to develop the Parent Voice Note (PVN), which identifies the parents’ goals and a roadmap for their support journey. The parents share their priorities, cultural/parenting values, strengths, and service interests. The PVN is a living document that evolves as priorities and care coordination activities change.

“We cannot help solve anyone’s problems or help someone at the point of their needs if we first don’t find out what really matters to them,” says one of the program’s Parent Leaders. “It’s only when we understand and know what they need, that we can do our best to meet them at the point of their needs based on the resources and knowledge that we have.”

Better Health Outcomes

The MFP’s evaluation findings demonstrate the program’s powerful impact. With MFP social work support and resources, parents are better able to prioritize their family’s health and increase their income and savings, leading to improved health outcomes, including:

Reduced Financial Strain: In a randomized clinical trial, families who received longitudinal 1-to-1 MFP social work support have increased their income by over $700 per month and their savings by over $1,000 after 6 months in the program. They have increased their use of public benefits, eased their financial burden, and reduced stress-related health issues. 

Improved Access to Care: By providing supports and increasing the value of the clinical care to parents and their children, the MFP has increased health care visit adherence, reduced missed visits, and increased timely vaccination rates. The MFP has also enabled patients who might otherwise miss pediatric health care visits due to cost concerns and competing priorities to receive higher quality medical care. 

Reducing Mental Health Inequities: The MFP focuses on economically- and socially-sidelined families, helping to close the gap in health and healthcare inequities by addressing financial and social barriers to high-quality cross-sector care.

“No matter how caring and committed the parent is, stress and trauma impact their well-being and often their babies, too,” says Elizabeth Krause Director of Programs at Perigee Fund. “This can start happening just a few weeks into a pregnancy. The way that we provide healthcare for families in the early years needs to reduce families’ stress and sources of trauma.”

PEDIATRICS SUPPORTING PARENTS
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Perigee Fund is a member of Pediatrics Supporting Parents (PSP), a philanthropic initiative that seeks to transform pediatric well-child visits to strengthen early relational health and create lasting change that helps children succeed. Parents, pediatricians, community leaders, and funders co-create the initiative’s governance, strategic priorities, and investments. PSP has partnered with five communities across four states:

— Durham Partners for Early Relational Health with Duke Children’s Primary Care | Durham, North Carolina

— Early Childhood Alliance Onondaga with Upstate Medical University | Onondaga, New York

— First Year Families – Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WCAAP) with Pediatrics Northwest | Pierce County, Washington

— LIFT / ACEs LA Medical Financial Partnership with Network for Care | Los Angeles County, California

— UCSF Center for Child and Community Health with the Ready! Resilient! Rising! Network (R3! Network) | Alameda and San Francisco Counties, California