Resources
We publish research, tools, and lessons learned to help healthcare and legal organizations build and operate medical-legal partnerships and to help funders and policymakers advance medical-legal partnership activities. You can search those resources in the library below.
The library also links to journal articles, authored both by National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership staff and MLP practitioners and researchers from the field, that highlight ways medical-legal partnerships have improved patient health and well-being, the healthcare workforce, and healthcare delivery. A list of these articles with summaries are also available on the Peer-Reviewed Research page.
A Medical–Legal Partnership as a Component of a Palliative Care Model
In a three-year period, 297 referrals were made to a palliative care-based medical-legal partnership for legal assistance with custody planning and guardianships, advance care planning, benefits advocacy, estate planning, and housing. An article in the Journal of Palliative Medicine details how the medical-legal partnership was able to solve many of patients’ legal problems and help them access critical public benefits, while also providing financial benefit to the hospital. Through 17 cases where the MLP helped patients enroll in previously denied health care coverage, the hospital was able to recover $923,188 in unreimbursed clinical services.
The Attorney as the Newest Member of the Cancer Treatment Team
This article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology discusses a New York City-based medical-legal partnership that integrated legal interventions into cancer care. Patients reported stress reduction, positive effects on family and financial situations, and improved adherence to medical treatment.