Health Law Partnership 20th Anniversary: Getting the HeLP for People in Need: Funding MLP Legal Services as Health Care

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), a medical-legal partnership (MLP) among Georgia State College of Law, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. In MLPs, clinicians, lawyers, and allied professionals work together to address structural, health-harming conditions to improve the health and well-being of patients. For example, the pattern of a child whose asthma is aggravated by mold in the home, resulting in multiple medical visits, will not improve without resolving the mold exposure. Legal services can achieve this outcome. Despite research demonstrating the positive impacts of MLP services on health, as well as health care costs, MLP services are not routinely paid for as part of health care. This panel will consider the role and impact of MLPs in caring for patients, explore promising models for funding MLP services, and identify strategies for expanding MLPs in Georgia and nationally to realize the full benefits MLPs offer.