The Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) is celebrating another client success. In November 2015, a 38-year-old African American client came to the MLP because she was dealing with unemployment related to her brain atrophy. In July 2015, she had an acute episode requiring hospitalization. She was not able to return to work. She was behind on rent and facing homelessness. We advised her on withdrawing funds from her retirement account. We opened the case to appeal her Unemployment Claim, but after neurology and neuropsychology appointments, it became apparent that she is facing permanent disability. This semester, a student attorney took on the case for a Social Security disability request for reconsideration and to seek long-term disability through the client’s employer plan. In early March, the LTD insurer approved the client’s claim. The client received close to $5,000 in back benefits and will receive approximately $1,200 per month for up to 2 years. As a result, the client was able to catch-up on her rent and stave off homelessness.
Jada Fehn, and the MLP partners, are extremely grateful to F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Saint Paul Foundation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation for the financial support to make this success possible. The first of its kind here in Minnesota, Mitchell Hamline’s Health Law Institute and United Family Medicine, a community-based clinic providing comprehensive, patient-centered primary care to low-income and medically underserved patients, launched a medical-legal partnership in the fall of 2014.