Projects

Project Overview

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) supported a pilot of the mobile health (mHealth) program Text4baby. This pilot assessed the effect of Text4baby on enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and on health knowledge, health behaviors, and healthcare engagement among those eligible for CHIP. Despite the interest in and potential of mHealth programs, the effect of mHealth on health knowledge, behavior, and outcomes was not conclusive. Several studies had focused on the effects of this type of intervention on socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, but limited evidence highlighted the need to further assess implementation factors related to outreach, enrollment, and engagement that might explain variation in outcomes, especially among the disadvantaged populations that might benefit the most.

As subcontractor to Mathematica Policy Research, Insight conducted qualitative research with stakeholders and pilot participants to determine the effectiveness of Text4baby in the Medicaid population and explored possibilities for scaling up and replicating the pilot mHealth program within and across states. The research also provided guidance for implementing similar programs to address additional health topics or conditions in the Medicaid population.

As part of the research, Insight—

• Identified stakeholders for interviews from state Medicaid agencies, local perinatal health outreach partners in pilot states, and representatives from program leads who designed and disseminated the Text4baby messages
• Designed and developed interview protocols for in-depth interviews and focus groups
• Conducted stakeholder interviews and focus groups
• Prepared a report on findings for CMS

Products

Interim evaluation reports, final report