Medical-Legal Partnerships
Good health often takes more than good healthcare. A lack of stable and safe housing, denial of insurance coverage, and loss of government benefits can impact health outcomes. But these problems have legal solutions.
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How we help
NJP partners with hospitals and clinics in Everett, Edmonds, Seattle, and Spokane so doctors, nurses, and social workers can consult with and refer patients to a lawyer. Working alongside care teams, our lawyers resolve the legal problems that harm health, from unsafe housing and disability discrimination to insurance denials, lost benefits, and threats to personal safety.
70%
Reduction in hospitalization rates for low-income children with asthma
I was working as a dispatcher and started having leg pain. It was getting bad. I realized the problem was serious when I was trying to hike on a trail, and I couldn’t walk. It was an excruciating event. I became bedbound and ultimately hospitalized. The hospital staff referred me to Northwest Justice Project.
Jose, NJP client
Legal Aid Matters
In one study, the work of medical-legal partnerships reduced hospitalization rates by nearly 70% for low-income children with asthma.
Health care providers may spot a legal problem, but it may take a lawyer to solve it. Through partnering with health care teams, we reach patients who may not have known legal help was available. Legal solutions can help them recover, stay healthier, and avoid repeat trips to the hospital.
Client Stories
Medical-Legal Partnership Successes
Housing Accommodation for Patient Care and Property Protection
Harborview Medical Center’s Burn Unit referred an elderly patient who sustained burns in an apartment fire to the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP). While hospitalized, the patient’s landlord delivered a 3-day notice to vacate her apartment. The patient wanted to move, but due to her injuries, she needed more time.
MLP attorneys contacted the landlord, explaining the 3-day notice was invalid, and that the patient was willing to move out of the apartment if given additional time. The landlord agreed to give the patient 90 days to move, which gave the patient time to focus on her recovery at a skilled nursing facility and to work with her support network to find suitable housing.
Avoiding Indefinite Hospitalization
A 15-year-old patient with a tracheostomy and ventilator required 24-hour private duty nursing care which was provided through Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). DSHS informed the patient’s mother that his nursing hours would be reduced to 16 hours per day which would result in the patient’s indefinite hospitalization. Seattle Children’s referred the family to MLP.
MLP represented the patient in an appeal of the care hours reduction and contacted DSHS to provide more information. After investigation, DSHS withdrew the reduction and fully restored the patient’s 24- hour nursing care, avoiding indefinite hospitalization for the patient.
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