Tax prep in the waiting room helps bridge the gap between poverty and poor health

To mark Tax Day in the U.S., I spoke with Dr. Lucy Marcil, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center and one of the co-founders of StreetCred, a free tax preparation program that helps low-income patients in a hospital waiting room. The program — which helps patients get up to $6,400 in tax credit — began in Boston in 2016, and has already expanded to 10 sites across seven states. Here’s a snapshot of our conversation:

Why exactly are you providing this service?
We saw poverty as being a key factor in patient health, and we thought it would be great if we could “prescribe” something for this problem of poverty. We chose to focus on a health care setting because we wanted to make the link to health. It's not about just money, but it also has health impacts.

How many people have you helped this year? 
The tax season isn’t officially done yet, but this year in our Boston location alone, we have done 500 returns, and returned about $1.2 million.