Worth the waiting room
Doctors prescribe free tax help to patients
Low-income Boston families can make the most of long wait times at the doctor’s office by taking advantage of a Boston Medical Center service that does patients’ taxes for free at medical sites.
“Our overall goal is to increase financial stability for families by offering free tax preparation services in clinical waiting rooms,” the program’s co-founder, Dr. Lucy Marcil, said. “That way, people can do it right on site.”
The Street-Cred program, the brainchild of Marcil and another former BMC resident, aims to increase the number of families making use of the earned income tax credit — which is available for low- to moderate-income working people, especially those with children.
In 2017, the first year the program was offered, Marcil found that 20 percent of the families had missed out on much-needed funds by not filing taxes at all.
Beginning Jan. 29, stations will open at five local centers: BMC, South End Community Health Center, Health Care for the Homeless, Martha Eliot Health Center and the primary care center at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Marcil and her colleague, Dr. Michael Hole, launched the pilot program in 2016 and plan to keep expanding services to cities and towns from coast to coast. This year, it will also be offered in Denver; Austin, Texas; New Haven, Conn.; and Asheville, N.C.
The earned income tax credit is unique in that it has bipartisan support, said Hole, now a pediatrician and professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Those who are left-leaning like that it’s a safety net,” Hole said., “And Republicans like it because it incentivizes the workforce.”
The seed was planted for the Street-Cred concept when one of Hole’s BMC patients tried to do her taxes at a government-funded center — taking a train and two buses across town with her toddler and newborn in tow — only to find that it was closed.
A second attempt was also futile when she arrived missing one piece of paper.
“We were waiting for you for 35 minutes,” Hole recalled the woman saying. “Why can’t we do our taxes here?”
Hole said that was the “light bulb moment.”
Marcil and Hole are encouraging doctors to give patients who qualify instructions on prescription note pad paper about what to bring in, so that when they come for their child’s next checkup, they can use the services.