Study: Babies in home visit program have less medical costs

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Newborns enrolled in New Mexico's home visiting program are less likely to use costly medical services than other children in their first year. The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/2ifnfae ) that according to a new Rand Corp. study, children enrolled in the New Mexico First Born program were a third less likely to visit an emergency room than newborns in a control group. First Born is a privately funded program that provides in-home services to parents and children in their first year in order to promote healthy child development. The study, published in the online edition of the journal Pediatrics, compared 138 newborns enrolled in a First Born program to 106 who were not enrolled. It found that children enrolled in the program were 41 percent less likely to make nine or more visits to a primary-care clinic than non-enrolled infants.