From Patients to Policy

Medical-legal partnerships operate at the intersection of public policy and patient care and are uniquely positioned to identify areas for institutional, regulatory and legislative change that affect patient health. By addressing internal and external systemic barriers that impede access to vital services, medical-legal partnerships target not just the immediate problem, but the source of unmet basic needs.

Success in the policy impact domain depends on the unique, combined voice of medical and legal partners and the compelling clinical experiences of the medical partner making the health case for increased access to resources to meet basic needs for low-income families at the federal, state and local level.

On the National Level

MLP for Health Act
Recently, there has been exciting legislative activity around a potential federal demonstration project for medical-legal partnerships. A demonstration project would support and expand the integration of MLPs into healthcare settings and collect data on the effectiveness of the MLP model from both legal and healthcare perspectives, including measuring cost-effectiveness and patient health outcomes. There is strong interest in both the House and Senate for the MLP for Health Act, which lays the groundwork for an MLP federal demonstration project. The Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate in September 2011.

Professional Impact
In order to achieve the biggest impact in the health and well-being of individuals and families, MLPs aim to simultaneously transform healthcare for vulnerable populations and the service delivery model of legal aid.   The National Center works with professional organizations to build leadership in law and medicine and incorporate MLP into the broader work of these professions.  Click here to read more about the professional impact of MLP.

In Local Communities

Medical-legal partnerships across the United States leverage the combined strength of lawyers and healthcare providers for institutional, regulatory and legislative changes that positively impact the vulnerable patient-clients they serve.

Below are a few examples of the systemic initiatives led by medical-legal partnerships across the U.S.

Cleveland Community Advocacy Program -- U Visas
The MLP team at the Cleveland Community Advocacy Program in Cleveland, OH worked with the Cleveland City Council to pass a resolution in support of U Visas on March 22, 2010.

Medical-Legal Bay Area Regional Coalition -- Code Enforcement
The MLPs in northern California organized a regional MLP policy initiative to investigate the housing code inspection practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Medical students researched the link between inadequate housing and poor health and medical partners documented the health connection.   A policy brief was written and disseminated in September 2009 with policy recommendations to improve access to healthy housing.

The report takes a close look at code enforcement policies and practices for dealing with moisture intrusion, ventilation, pest control and other housing issues that are particularly relevant to people with asthma.

Code Enforcement and Healthy Homes: An Analysis of Practices in Four Bay Area Counties

Recommendations and Next Steps for Local and Statewide Programs and Policy Development

Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston -- Utility Access and Health
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.

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: March 2010.