When Poverty Makes You Sick, a Lawyer Can Be the Cure
Like other forms of preventive care, medical-legal clinics are a bargain. One striking example: New York City’s LegalHealth wrote formal legal demand letters to help adult asthma patients get their apartments cleared of rodents, bugs, mold, water and structural damage. The apartments were fixed. Patients improved, drastically, and there was a 90 percent drop in emergency room visits and hospital admissions. This was achieved by a one-shot intervention that cost an average of $225 per case.
But while society may save money, that’s not necessarily true for hospitals — and it’s hospitals that make the decisions. Fee-for-service medicine rewards hospitals for more admissions and emergency room usage, not less, and doesn’t reimburse hospitals for preventive services such as legal aid.