Wednesday, April 11, 2018
The moment you’re exposed to the HIV virus, a clock starts ticking. You have 72-hours to begin taking medication that greatly reduces your risk of contracting the virus, and the sooner you start taking it, the more effective it is. Whitman-Walker Health’s medical-legal partnership worked with insurance companies to remove requirements forcing Post-Exposure Prophylaxis medications to be filled by mail. By doing so, they ensured people who were exposed to the HIV virus could get the medication they needed filled at a local pharmacy within the 72-hour window when the drug can be effective in preventing the transmission of HIV....Read More
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
When children on ventilators were unable to leave the hospital due to a home-nursing shortage caused by low Medicaid reimbursement rates, the medical-legal partnership at Seattle Children’s sued the state Medicaid Director and the Director of the Healthcare Authority to help kids return home. They then turned their attention to advocacy with the state agencies to fix the reimbursement rates....Read More
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Essentials of Health Justice: A Primer examines the legal, structural, and justice issues underlying health disparities and other types of health inequities. The authors assess the adequacy of current safety net programs and legal protections affecting the health of vulnerable populations, and look at concrete strategies for bringing about change to promote health justice. In an academic context, this new text introduces structural determinants of health and health justice in undergraduate and graduate law, public health, medical, nursing, and other health professions courses....Read More
Monday, April 2, 2018
In the rule for the 2018 performance year of the Quality Payment Program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services included “screening for health-harming legal needs” as a recognized Improvement Activity (IA) under Medicare’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Now eligible clinicians who screen patients for legal needs will receive credit in the IA category, which could potentially lead to an increased Medicare reimbursement rate. This new primer from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership discusses which clinicians are eligible for the Quality Payment Program, how to claim credit for Improvement Activities, and the inherent opportunities for medical-legal partnerships....Read More
