Cash Transfers in the Perinatal Period and Investigations of Infant Maltreatment

Was implementation of the Rx Kids prenatal and infant cash prescription program in Flint, Michigan, associated with changes in Children’s Protective Services (CPS) investigations?In this cross-sectional study, the implementation of Rx Kids was associated with a statistically significant 7.0–percentage-point decrease in the investigated allegation rate among infants born in Flint, corresponding to a 32% decrease relative to the preintervention period.Rx Kids was associated with substantial, population-level reductions in investigations of maltreatment among infants in the earliest months of life.

Corresponding Author: Sumit Agarwal, MD, MPH, PhD, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (sumitag@umich.edu).

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