Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma

PROJECT PURPOSE

Purpose of the project is to create two Medical Legal Partnerships (MLP) at OUHSC and the Tulsa County Health department as a pilot to show the Medicaid cost savings of of a MLP. MLP's integrate the unique expertise of lawyers into healthcare settings to help health care providers address structural problems or the social determinants of health at the root of so many health inequities. MLP is a flexible innovation that has been adopted by nearly 450 health care organizations in the nation. A successful MLP pilot as described will not only realize Medicaid savings but serve as a model of encouragement for other healthcare providers to seek both the benefits and Medicaid savings of a MLP.

EVIDENCE

A HHS funded MLP pilot concluded that "civil legal aid services positively impact individual and population health. . . and drives down healthcare costs." "MLP partnerships and Healthy Start: Integrating Civil Legal Aid Services into Public Health Advocacy;" Journal of Legal Medicine, 2014 Vol 35, No. 1 pgs 195-209. National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships, "Making the case for Medical-Legal Parthernsips: An updated review of the evidence, 2013-2020; October 2020, provides over 30 annotations in support of its premise. Or the 2021 study, "Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action Evaluating the Efficacy of Medical-Legal Partnerships that Address Social Determinants of Health:" https: //muse.jhu.edu/article/797372 . Authors: Abby Nerlinger . . .

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Communities include the elderly, disabled persons, children, one parent families, Veterans, the unemployed, the underemployed, homeless, the mentally ill, those with Covid, those caring for covid infected persons and those who lost jobs or shuttered businesses due to Covid. All who are unhealthy or seeking health without success due to factors outside of the doctor patient relationship that sabotage the best health care efforts.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

There is substantial evidence that MLP's support at least 5 high-level outcomes: 1) Positive changes in the health and well being of patients, 2) improved housing and utility stability among patients; 3) improved access to financial resources and concrete supports among patients; 4) improvements in health care systems and workforce: and 5) improvements in policies and protocols. Within these outcomes LASO will track, patient compliance, emergency room usage, health care provider referrals, safe and healthy housing secured; guardianships, income supports to meet basic needs through SNAP, Social Security, VA and Child support and other social determinants of health as barriers to good health outcomes and cost accelerators. All outcomes to be recorded in case management as part of the database.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma