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Research & Evaluation


The Impact and Efficacy of Medical-Legal Partnership

Significant strides have been made to demonstrate the impact and efficacy of medical-legal partnership.  While gaps still exist, several studies demonstrate improvement in: patient health and well-being, medical homes and institutions, clinical workforce skills and provision of legal services.

Improved Patient Health and Well-Being
Improved Medical Homes and Institutions
Improved Clinical Workforce Skills
Improved Provision of Legal Services


 

Improved Patient Health and Well-Being

Medical-legal partnership improves patient health and well-being.

People report reduced stress after receiving MLP legal services.
Connecting the Dots: Stress, Health Disparities and Legal Interventions. Presentation at 2010 Medical-Legal Partnership Summit. Arlington, VA: March 25, 2010. Anne Ryan, JD.

People report feeling more empowered after receiving MLP services.
Legal Needs Study Executive Summary. National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and Cornell University. Boston: February 2008. Diana Hernandez.

People report improvement in their general health.
Pilot Study of Medical-Legal Partnership to Address Social and Legal Needs of Patients. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 2010; 21: 157-168. Dana Weintraub, et. al.
 

RESEARCH GAP

  • An in-depth study of directly measured health benefits is needed, particularly in chronically ill (such as asthma or diabetes) and elderly populations to assess the direct health benefit of MLP services.
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Improved Medical Homes and Institutions

Preliminary evidence shows that medical-legal partnerships help reduce barriers to care in the medical home and helps institutions who serve poor people get reimbursed better for care they provide while helping people get all their legal needs met.

People report fewer barriers to care after receiving MLP services.
Impact of Legal Interventions on Cancer Survivors. LegalHealth. New York, NY: January 2007. Randye Retkin, JD, Julie Brandfield, JD and Cathy Bacich.

MLP provides a cost-benefit to healthcare institutions.
A Medical-Legal Partnership as a Component of a Palliative Care Model. Journal of Palliative Medicine. January 2010; 13(1): 15-18. Kerry J. Rodabaugh, Maureen Hammond, Dawn Myszka, Megan Sandel.

Process and Impact Evaluation of a Legal Assistance and Health Care Community Partnership. Health Promotions Practice. July 2009; 10(3): 378-385. James Teufel, MPH, Stephen Brown, PhD, Woody Thorne, BS, Diane Goffinet, JD and Latesha Clemons, BSW.

Health Care Recovery Dollars: A Sustainable Strategy for Medical-Legal Partnerships? National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership. Boston: March 2008. Rachael Knight, Esq.


RESEARCH GAP

  • We have not done a full cost-benefit analysis with all health benefits (reduced hospitalization, ER visit, better chronic disease outcomes) in the medical home or societal benefits measured (i.e. mom able to work, child able to go to school).
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Improved Clinical Workforce Skills

Early evidence suggests education from medical-legal partnerships can improve clinical workforce skills in detecting legal needs and referring to medical-legal partnerships.

Five residency programs report better legal screening after MLP training and report viewing legal needs as a more important part of primary care.
Medical-Legal Partnership: Collaborating with Lawyers to Identify and Address Health Disparities. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2010; 25(Suppl 2):136–9. Ellen Cohen, MD, Danya Fortess Fullerton, Randye Retkin, JD, Dana Weintraub, MD, Pamela Tames, Julie Brandfield, JD, and Megan Sandel, MD, MPH.

Medical-Legal Partnerships: Addressing Competency Needs Through Lawyers. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. December 2009; 1(2). 304-309. Edward Paul, MD, Danya Fortess Fullerton, BA, Ellen Cohen, MD, Ellen Lawton, JD. Anne Ryan, JD and Megan Sandel, MD, MPH.


RESEARCH GAP

  • We have not studied workforce development, including whether students or residents exposed to MLP are more likely to go into service in underserved areas.  Anecdotally, three MLPs started from students or residents that were exposed to MLP during training (Palo Alto, Kansas City, Pittsburgh) and remained working with the underserved.
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Improved Provision of Legal Services

Medical-legal partnership helps vulnerable people get their legal needs met – particularly people who have never used legal services before.

Low-income people have many legal needs that impact their health and that they do not recognize as legal.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Prevalence and Severity of Unmet Legal Needs in a Pediatric Emergency Department Setting. National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.  Boston: April 2008. Mark Hansen, MPH and Ellen Lawton, JD.

Legal Services in the health care setting reach people who have legal needs and have not used legal services before.
Pilot Study of Medical-Legal Partnership to Address Social and Legal Needs of Patients. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 2010; 21: 157-168. Dana Weintraub, et. al.

MLP works in multiple medical home models (hospitals and health centers) across many populations including children, the elderly, cancer patients and pregnant women.
Medical-Legal Partnership Network Annual Site Survey. National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership. Boston: March 2009.


RESEARCH GAP

  • Is MLP more efficient in having clinical staff help identify and address legal need early?
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