What Should Clinicians in Organizations Without Established MLP Programs Do When Their Patients Need Lawyers to Meet Their Health Needs?

Dinushika Mohottige; Karina Albistegui Adler; Allison Charney; Lilia Cervantes

doi:10.1001/amajethics.2024.605

What Should Clinicians in Organizations Without Established MLP Programs Do When Their Patients Need Lawyers to Meet Their Health Needs?

AMA J Ethics. 2024 Aug 1;26(8):E605-615. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2024.605.

Authors

Dinushika Mohottige¹, Karina Albistegui Adler², Allison Charney³, Lilia Cervantes⁴

Affiliations

¹ Assistant professor in the Institute of Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine and the Barbara T. Murphy Division of Nephrology at Mount Sinai in New York City.
² Co-director of health justice at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
³ Executive director of the Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership in New York City.
⁴ Professor in the Department of Medicine and the director of immigrant health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

PMID: 39088407
DOI: 10.1001/amajethics.2024.605

Abstract

Undocumented people in the United States face innumerable legal and structural barriers to health and health care services, including for kidney failure. Their experiences vary across states and regions due to wide variation in insurance coverage and unreliable access to health-promoting resources, including medical-legal partnerships. This commentary on a case canvasses key policy about structural and legal determinants of health for undocumented persons.

MeSH terms

Health Services Accessibility* / ethics
Health Services Needs and Demand
Humans
Insurance Coverage
Lawyers*
Physicians / ethics
Undocumented Immigrants
United States

Grants and funding

K23 DK139454/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/United States