Medical Legal Partnership

At a Glance

This project, Medical Legal Partnership (MLP), led by Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association, Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association (WPHCA), Legal Action Wisconsin (LAW) and Judicare Legal Aid (Judicare) aims to improve financial stability and well-being for patients with lower incomes and unmet civil legal needs by connecting them with free health related legal services. Amy Washbush, PhD, UW–Madison School of Human Ecology, serves as the academic partner.

The Challenge

Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs) integrate lawyers into health care settings to address the legal needs of patients. In this collaboration, health care professionals screen for legal needs and facilitate hand-offs to legal partners who provide direct support to patients as they navigate legal barriers to health, such as eviction, debt or benefit denial.

Recognizing the challenges that community health center (CHC) patients face, including limited legal staff capacity and lack of systems-based referral approaches connecting patients to legal experts, the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association (WPHCA), Legal Action Wisconsin (LAW) and Judicare Legal Aid (Judicare) are piloting a MLP program. WPHCA is a non-profit membership organization representing Wisconsin’s 19 federally qualified CHCs. Participating CHCs serve over 50,000 patients and disproportionately reach populations with lower income levels and fewer insurance options. Of the patients receiving care at CHCs, 77 percent have incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (compared to 25 percent of the state’s population), 55 percent have Medicaid insurance (compared to 18 percent of the state) and 15 percent are uninsured (compared to 5 percent of the state). The populations served by LAW and Judicare largely reflect CHC patient demographics. About one-third of clients report a disability of some kind, one-fifth are survivors of domestic violence and more than three-quarters are at or below 126 percent of the federal poverty level.

Project Goals

This MLP pilot program has four goals to drive greater health and well-being for Wisconsinites, particularly those at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured individuals experiencing barriers to health:

1. Establish a robust MLP system that will pilot the sustainability and replicability of an MLP program design.
2. Enhance patient financial stability by addressing unmet legal needs with increased MLP capacity.
3. Elevate patient voices by establishing a patient advisory group to influence program design, inform insights, amplify patient experience and advance systems change.
4. Increase the scale of impact on communities and systems factors by documenting evidence to address sustainability and support for continuation of the MLP pilot, increase partnerships and support for future growth of the MLP program.