Listen to the story - Medical-legal partnership lowers costs

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Medical-legal partnership lowers costs

Marketplace - Los Angeles,CA*

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/10/pediatric_a

ttorneys

The nation's hospitals are struggling to care for low-income

patients. Proposed solutions usually involve more money or more

doctors. But some medical centers are trying a different approach --

more lawyers. Jeff Tyler reports.

TEXT OF STORY

KAI RYSSDAL: Most of the time, when you hear about problems in

healthcare it's a question of not enough money or not enough

doctors. That's usually the case in cities. They're often short on

both, and many urban hospitals are struggling to care for low-income

patients. One medical center in Boston has led the search for a

solution in a completely different direction. It's hired attorneys

to help fight illness and disease among the poor.

Marketplace's Jeff Tyler has this report.

JEFF TYLER: Poor families, with no alternative, bring their sick

children to the emergency room. Not only is this about the most

expensive way to get healthcare, the conditions that bring

impoverished kids back to the ER again and again are often

preventable. Ellen Lawton is executive director of the Medical-Legal

Partnership for Children at Boston Medical Center.

ELLEN LAWTON: We have families that we see, for example, who are

diabetic, and when their utilities are shut off, they're not able to

keep their medicines refrigerated the way they're supposed to, and

as a result, they end up in the emergency room, instead of being

able to administer some of these treatments at home.

Chairman of pediatrics Barry Zuckerman treated children with

malnutrition who had been denied food stamps, and kids with ear

infections who lived in homes with no heat. Treating the ear

infection was easy, but there was little Zuckerman could do about

the utility problem. Then he hired a lawyer.

BARRY ZUCKERMAN: And that maybe these problems of poor people that

are causing illness actually has legal remedies.

Say a disadvantaged child lives in an apartment with a leaky pipe.

The landlord refuses to fix it, even though the leak is causing

mold, and mold can trigger respiratory problems. That's where the

medical center's staff attorney JoHanna Flacks comes in.

JOHANNA FLACKS: There are landlords who will not respond until the

matter is ratcheted up to one that is officially legal in nature.

Or economic. Doctor Zuckerman says slumlords will only make

improvements if it's more expensive not to.

ZUCKERMAN: They have a choice to make. They can either spend the $50

and fix the leaky pipe and clean it up, or they can go to court with

a lawyer, and they certainly don't want to do the latter. It's too

expensive.

In her small apartment in Northern California, , a Mexican

immigrant, cooks for her three children. The three-year-old twins

have Cabbage Patch dolls and plastic horses to play with. Until

recently, the floor where the kids play threatened the health of her

seven-year-old son. He has asthma, and suffered allergies and

headaches. took him to a doctor who told her to tear out

the old carpet.

ANGELICA: I asked the manager to remove the old carpet from the

apartment, but the manager wouldn't do it.

That's when her doctor put in touch with a lawyer through

Peninsula Family Advocacy Program. The lawyer contacted the

apartment manager. Next thing you know, that old carpet is gone --

and her son?

ANGELICA: Much better. My son no longer suffers from headaches and

allergies. With the help of the lawyer, everything is good.

The concept is catching on. Across the country there are more than

80 medical-legal partnerships. In addition to helping the poor, they

can help hospitals recoup insurance dollars. Again, Doctor Zuckerman

at Boston Medical Center.

ZUCKERMAN: So our lawyers, by helping out the patients, actually

also accrues value in dollars to the hospital, because in many cases

they can find that such-and-such a condition was covered, and the

hospital should be paid for the services that was provided to the

patient.

The partnerships can also boost a medical facility's reputation,

says staff attorney JoHanna Flacks.

FLACKS: They are investing in being able to say we perhaps have

fewer emergency room admissions for our pediatric primary care

patients.

Cutting back on ER visits isn't just for kids. Medical-legal

partnerships are being expanded to help cancer victims, geriatric

patients and other vulnerable groups. All confronting healthcare

problems with a doctor-lawyer one-two punch.

In Los Angeles, I'm Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.