Article: Study found MLP recovered $200,000 in financial benefits for patients over three-year period

Friday, August 9, 2013

By Melissa Klein, Andrew Beck, Adrienne Henize, Donita Parrish, Elaine Fink & Robert Kahn Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

This article in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved shares the results of a three-year study examining the impact of medical-legal partnership services in an academic pediatric primary care setting. During the study period, health care providers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s made 1,808 referrals to its MLP for legal services. Patients referred were more likely to have asthma and developmental delay/behavioral disorder than the general clinic population, and the referrals were most commonly made related to problems with housing and income / health public benefits. There were positive legal outcomes in 89 percent of referrals affecting nearly 6,000 cohabitating children and adults, and translating into nearly $200,000 in recovered back benefits for those individuals.