A medical-legal partnership (MLP) integrates legal services into a medical care setting to work with and train doctors, nurses, social workers and healthcare staff to identify social determinants to health that are legal in nature that negatively affect health care outcomes, so that appropriate referrals for legal services can be made.
The Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) Initiative is one of LCD’s primary service delivery models. This innovative approach promotes improved health outcomes for low-income people with disabilities. LCD works with healthcare teams to proactively identify and resolve health-harming legal issues such as substandard housing, family stability and safety, and access to public benefits – before they reach a crisis point. LCD’s MLP Initiative was the first of its kind in greater Philadelphia, and we currently partner with health centers and hospitals in the operation of six MLPs across nine sites throughout Philadelphia.
AmeriHealth/Keystone First and Nemours Children’s Health, Philadelphia
833 Chestnut Street, #300
Philadelphia, PA 19107
In 2021, LCD established a new partnership with AmeriHealth/Keystone First (a Medicaid managed care organization) to create a community-based program, the LCD-Keystone Housing Stability Initiative, to screen and refer individuals with unmet housing legal needs. The partnership expanded in 2022 to become a full MLP that includes an attorney/paralegal team embedded at Nemours Children’s Health at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City Philadelphia.
Family Practice & Counseling Network (FPCN)
Abbottsford Falls:
4700 Wissahickon Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19144
11th Street Health Center:
850 N. 11th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
Health Annex:
6120-B Woodland Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19142
FPCN has three federally-qualified health centers in Philadelphia, all providing primary health care by nurse practitioners. Our first MLP with FPCN was formed in 2011 at Abbottsford Falls in the Germantown area, and it was the first MLP in the country in a nurse-managed health center. We are now at all three FPCN sites including the 11th Street Health Center in North Philadelphia and the Health Annex located in Southwest Philadelphia.
Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital
1513 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, located in Center City Philadelphia, was one of our founding partners back in 1987 and was our home from 1990. Over the decades, they have continued to stand by our side, supporting our programs, even through their merger with Jefferson Health. Our 35-year partnership has seen thousands of patients obtain advice, guidance and representation from our staff. We serve clients who are receiving inpatient or outpatient healthcare services.
Project HOME
Stephen Klein Wellness Center:
2144 Cecil B. Moore Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19121
Hub of Hope:
1400 Arch Street, Sub Concourse Level, Municipal Services Building
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Project HOME seeks to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia and alleviate the underlying causes of poverty. LCD’s MLP with ProjectHOME was launched in 2013 at their Stephen Klein Wellness Center in North Philadelphia to address the health-harming unmet legal needs among the center’s patients, many of whom are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless every day. In 2018, LCD began working with the chronically homeless population at Project HOME’s Hub of Hope, a walk-in engagement center for people experiencing homelessness that is located underneath Suburban Station in Center City Philadelphia.
St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children
160 East Erie Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19134
LCD operates the PhilaKID MLP with St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. In 2011, LCD began providing legal services to families at the Center for Child and Adolescent Health, which relocated to St. Christopher’s new Center for the Urban Child in 2014. In 2013, we expanded our services to the Special Needs Clinic, which provides medical service to children with severe disabilities.
The Philadelphia AIDS Consortium (TPAC)
112 N. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
In 2022, LCD joined the Philadelphia Aids Consortium (TPAC) as the legal services provider in a three-year National Institute of Health (NIH) funded study to explore the benefit of an MLP in HIV care. Located in Center City Philadelphia, TPAC works to empower people to manage their own health care by providing outreach, education, prevention, and treatment.

Now hiring!
LCD is excited to announce our current open career opportunities! Director of Development Legal Director Paralegal...