Why MLP Legal Care Should Be Financed as Health Care

Authors

William M. Sage, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow
Keegan D. Warren, Institute for Healthcare Access, Texas A&M University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2024

Journal Title

AMA Journal of Ethics

ISSN

2376-6980

DOI

10.1001/amajethics.2024.640

Abstract

Medical-legal partnership (MLP) integrates the unique expertise of lawyers into collaborative clinical environments. MLP teams meet the needs of individual patients while also detecting structural problems at the root of health inequities and advancing solutions at the institutional, community, and system levels. Yet MLPs today operate in limited settings and survive on scant budgets. Expanding their impact requires secure funding. Financing MLPs as health care can do the following: (1) help address inequity at the point of care; (2) enable expert diagnosis and treatment of nonmedical drivers of health; (3) enhance team-based practice in health care organizations; (4) offer another way for clinicians to participate in advocacy; and (5) bolster a broader movement to increase access to justice.

First Page

640

Last Page

647

Num Pages

8

Volume Number

26

Issue Number

8

Publisher

American Medical Association

Recommended Citation

William M. Sage & Keegan D. Warren, Why MLP Legal Care Should Be Financed as Health Care, 26 AMA J. Ethics 640 (2024).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2203

File Type

PDF