Legal advice as a determinant of health

POPULATION HEALTH Medical-legal partnerships are becoming part of the care continuum hen Christine Crawford, 57, began discussing gender transition surgery with her hormone specialist at a Mount Sinai Hospital clinic in New York, she expressed concern over the process of legally changing her name to Christine. The partnership also works with volunteer legal organizations for services involving domestic issues and housing discrimination and hopes to have two or three more programs started by the end of the year, including one associated with Mount Sinai's Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organization, says Beth Essig, executive vice president and general counsel of Mount Sinai Health System. Roughly 300 hospitals, health systems and clinics are now part of medical-legal partnerships, as the field begins to realize how closely the social determinants of health are linked to the law, says Joel Teiteibaum, co-director of the National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships.