Each year, between 50 percent and 85 percent of health center patients—or between 10 million and 17 million people—experience unmet legal needs, many of which negatively impact their health, a new study says.

Furthermore, those numbers are likely to increase given the profound changes in eligibility, plan enrollment, provider selection, and service delivery embodied in the newly enacted health reform law, it says.

The study was conducted by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, in Washington, D.C.

Though the consequences of complex social problems and associated health disparities, such as substandard housing and environmental conditions, can be treated medically, their causes are social and are often more successfully remedied through legal, rather than medical, channels, researchers say.

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) now are available at more than 180 hospitals and health centers across 38 states. They are a valuable approach to addressing the legal needs affecting low-income and vulnerable patients, offering needed services that can improve overall health and well-being while simultaneously lowering the direct health-care costs borne by health center patients and increasing health center revenue, the study's authors say.

In MLPs, health-care staff members at hospitals, clinics, and other facilities identify legal problems, refer patients to an affiliated lawyer or legal services team, and work alongside attorneys to minimize or resolve problems that negatively affect patient health. Medical-legal partnerships assist patients with securing health-care and other public benefits, addressing housing issues, and obtaining support for family and domestic crises.

Community health centers, in addition to rendering direct clinical care, already provide a wide array of programs to their patients focused on addressing the complex emotional, social, and environmental factors that are prevalent in low-income communities and that adversely affect patient health. Given their comprehensive approach to health care and high proportion of low-income patients, health centers could serve as an excellent entry point for low-income populations to legal services, researchers say.

"Health centers have a long history of providing integrated and supportive services to their patients," says Julio Bellber, president and CEO of the RCHN Community Health Foundation.

"Legal services offered through medical-legal partnerships are an excellent example of programs that can benefit the individual patient, the center, and the community," Bellber says.