Legal aid has been integrated into the MetroHealth system since 2003 and works together in a medical-legal partnership. Legal aid lawyers train medical providers to identify legal issues in patient cases. Providers refer cases to legal aid to ensure better health outcomes for patients. Beyond this initial partnership with MetroHealth, Legal Aid has expanded its medical-legal partnerships to include St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and teaching hospitals. If you are a patient at any of the above locations and have a legal problem, you can ask your doctor to refer you to the CAP. During the pregnancy of her second child, Renee Appelmans (not her real name) spent four days in teaching hospitals due to illness. After being released, she tried to schedule a follow-up appointment, but discovered that her Medicaid had ended. To make matters worse, the food aid she depended on to feed her family had also been cut. Fortunately, the University Hospital`s medical-legal partnership with legal aid quickly combined Renee with expert legal representation.
A Legal Aid paralegal identified why Medicaid denied Renee additional coverage: the administration lacked some necessary information about her case. The paralegal worked with Cuyahoga County Job and Family Services (CCJFS) to get the necessary information and helped Renee get Medicaid again. Meanwhile, Renee spent months asking for food stamps again, only to be put on hold for hours without hearing a living person. Renee`s lawyer contacted the CCJFS and requested an expedited telephone interview for her client. Shortly thereafter, Renee was interviewed and received $194 in food assistance. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs encourages its VA medical centers to provide free space for municipal legal advisory agencies to provide local care. Through philanthropy from the law firm Benesch, the University Hospitals established a medico-legal partnership in 2018 and integrated legal advisors into our team at the UH Rainbow Ahuja Center for Women & Children. Legal aid helps the patients and families we care for live healthier, less stressful lives. The case of Shelly is a prime example. Studies have shown that patients with access to legal services in a health facility are more likely to take prescribed medications, experience less stress and better mental health, and have better access to financial resources, according to the press release.
Health care providers know that care and treatment provided by doctors and nurses represents only 20% of a person`s overall health. The social determinants of health – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age – are the most important factors in a person`s health. Medico-legal partnerships incorporate the unique expertise of health facility lawyers to help clinicians, case managers and social workers address the structural issues that cause so many health inequalities. To date, Legal Aid has established medico-legal partnerships with four health systems in Northeast Ohio to address issues such as housing conditions, barriers to education, lack of food, and other poverty-related issues that impact a person`s health and well-being. Legal aid lawyers train health care providers to identify civil law issues that affect patients` health. Providers can then refer patients to legal aid through a streamlined system. When Shelly mentioned the possible deportation while visiting her son, my colleague referred her to the legal aid office of the UH Rainbow Ahuja Center for Women & Children. UH healthcare providers are trained to recognize when legal issues create barriers to health for our patients. We connect with legal aid lawyers through a streamlined referral portal and work with them to find solutions to the challenges our patients face. Housing problems are incredibly common and have increased during the pandemic. Immediately after the referral, Legal Aid acknowledged that Shelly was entitled to Cleveland`s right to counsel at the shelter, and another Legal Aid lawyer began working on her case. The lawyer first helped Shelly fill out the correct paperwork to be covered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention`s federal moratorium on evictions, and helped Shelly with the complicated application for rent assistance funds.
The legal aid lawyer received a letter from her son`s UH doctor in support of the application for rent assistance. Although the moratorium ended by the time the money arrived, Shelly`s owner accepted the money and did not ask for eviction despite noise concerns. Thanks to the collaboration between Legal Aid and UH, Shelly was able to keep a roof over her family while she looked for a new job. Our medical-legal partnership with MetroHealth, called the Community Advocacy Program, provides access to advocacy services in five locations: Main Campus Pediatrics, Old Brooklyn Health Center (for patients of Medicare collaborative care partners across the MetroHealth system), Ohio City Health Center, Buckeye Health Center, and Broadway Health Center. Grube is the Medical Director of Pediatrics at the UH Rainbow Ahuja Center for Women & Children.
