Family Medicine

Guest columnist and attorney Karen G. Luther describes the important work of the Legal Aid for Children and Families program in the Oakland County Bar Association journal, LACHES.

In July 2010, the Medical-Legal Partnership for Health Act was introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.  Two identical bills were introduced calling for a federal demonstration project for MLP.

In this webinar, Ellen Lawton, NCMLP's Executive Director, and Kevin Kappel, Manager of Government Strategies for ML Strategies, share next steps for the bill and MLP Network outreach.

In January 2009, the National Center launched a new website designed to encourage more interaction between MLP sites. The new website includes a comprehensive resource library and individual pages for every site in the Network.

This webinar walks members of the MLP Network through the new website, and specifically how to search for resources from other sites and how to upload their programs resources. It also covers how to make updates to member site pages, add news items and sign up for RSS feeds for news, resources and employment opportunities.

Presenter:

• Kate Marple, National Program Coordinator, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

To successfully partner with one another, lawyers and healthcare providers must first learn how the other profession works. This can be one of the most challenging aspects of working at an MLP.

This webinar is designed as a primer for MLP attorneys. It provides organizational charts for hospitals and health centers and an overview of where vulnerable people receive their healthcare. Panelists discuss key roles in the healthcare system, offer suggestions of training venues to target, and highlight key terminology.

Presenters:

• Megan Sandel, MD, MPH, Medical Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
• Ellen Lawton, Esq., Executive Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
• Bob Pettignano, MD, Director, Medical Affairs, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spaulding and Medical Director, HeLP

Boston Medical Center (BMC) health care providers and MLP | Boston’s legal team took a three-prong appoach to address the problem of utility access for low-income patients at BMC. They began by training front-line healthcare staff and providing direct legal assistance to low-income families, and then created institutional solutions that led to systemic impact across the state.

This report highlights the impact medical-legal partnership can have on systems change and underscores the need for active medical-legal partnerships to expand upon their dynamic service delivery model for a broader impact on policy.

CITATION:
Utility Access and Health: A Medical-Legal Partnership Patients-to-Policy Case Study. National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston. Boston: June 2010.