MLP News

New article in the San Francisco Chronicle highlights the growing network of MLPs in the Bay Area.

The Examiner spotlights the Legal Aid for Children's current activities and its expectations of future growth.

HRSA Deupty Administrator Marcia Brand discusses how MLPs can help to eliminate health disparities in her testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on September 14, 2010.

New video on MLP at Legal Aid of Western Missouri features interviews with Dr. Jeffrey Colvin and attorney Katie Cronin.

New MLP Clinic at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Q & A with Dr. Barry Zuckerman and Dr. Megan Sandel on the value and impact of MLP.

Dr. Edward Paul, director of medical education at Yuma Regional Medical Center and Medical Advisory Board member, co-authored a new study in the September issue of Health Affairs, highlighting how medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) are helping vulnerable patients overcome problems that create and perpetuate poor health.

Article features pro bono engagement in the Northeast Florida MLP.

Physicians and attorneys from Cincinnati, Tucson and Boston-based programs discuss how MLP is transforming primary care for vulnerable populations.

Wake Forest University’s Elder Law Clinic and Internal Medicine Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Section have together joined the MLP Network, a national network of partnership sites that are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, including the elderly.

A local doctor and attorney have teamed up to launch an initiative aimed at solving problems that might not be medical in nature but still can sabotage people’s health. Called a medical-legal partnership, the concept is gaining popularity nationwide. The premise is that health problems sometimes can’t be resolved through medical treatment alone. For example, a child with asthma might take medication as prescribed but still have breathing problems because of mold in the family’s apartment. Or a cancer patient might struggle with scheduling needed treatment because her employer is hassling her about time away from the job.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced bills that would allocate $10 million to test the value of medical-legal partnerships.

National medical director Megan Sandel discusses the health risks of utilities shut-off for vulnerable populations.

Laurence Tribe, Senior Counselor for Access to Justice at the U.S. Department of Justice, highlights the MLP for Health Act during a keynote speech at the 2010 ABA Pro Bono Publico Awards Assembly Luncheon.

Speaking to attendees at the Legislative and Governmental Advocacy Update session, ABA President-Elect Stephen Zack outlined a number of issues on which the ABA Governmental Affairs Office has been active. A portion of the program included a description of how medical-legal partnerships work in practice.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is looking to build on a trend of linking medical providers with attorneys as a way to help patients through the health care process, avoid preventable medical conditions and reduce health care costs. Senate health committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) along with other senators last week introduced legislation that would set aside $10 million for a federal demonstration and evaluation program to bring attorneys into health care settings and integrate preventive law and medicine, and provide legal assistance to providers and patients.

On Tuesday, July 20, 2010, the Arizona Daily Sun ran an AP story titled, "'Contextual Errors' Common in Medical Care," addressing medical providers' inattention to social or environmental stressors that impact patient health. Providers quoted in this article acknowledged that patients' living conditions -- quality of housing, availability of food and family safety, for example -- are often bypassed during medical diagnosis. As the article emphasized, social problems can lead to adverse health consequences. Because some problems require legal solutions, legal advocacy may be the missing component in a holistic health care model.

A new act introduced by Senator Kit Bond and his colleagues from Iowa and Indiana will try to promote legal assistance that could lead to health care savings.

Maria Castilleja’s heart sunk, she says, when housing authorities threatened to oust her out from her apartment because she forgot to report a $5 increment in food stamp benefits.

n May a group of attorneys from Baker & Daniels spent the afternoon at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis. They toured the infusion clinic where patients receive chemotherapy, met with a social worker, and received tuberculosis skin tests, a prerequisite for working with patients. The attorneys are volunteers with EMBRACE, a program that provides holistic services to female cancer patients. The lawyers, working out of the hospital's clinic, help patients draw up guardianship and estate-planning documents.