Health Care Corporatization as a Catalyst for Wellness Legal Partnerships

Area of Science:

• Health Law
• Corporate Law
• Public Health

Background:

• Increasing private equity investment in physician practices is a growing concern.
• Current legal practice sites are ill-equipped to handle patient harm arising from healthcare corporatization.
• Adverse impacts affect healthcare purchasers (employers, patients) and physicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• Propose a new health law practice model: the Wellness Legal Partnership (WLP).
• Address the adverse impacts of healthcare corporatization on stakeholders.
• Improve patient wellbeing and mitigate harms from corporate influence in healthcare.

Main Methods:

• Model the Wellness Legal Partnership (WLP) after the Medical Legal Partnership (MLP).
• Utilize systems leadership theory, lawyer fiduciary duties, and health justice frameworks.
• Root WLPs in corporate health and wellness benefit settings.

Main Results:

• WLPs offer a novel approach to combatting negative impacts of healthcare corporatization.
• The model is designed to improve patient wellbeing.
• A three-fold approach of individual advocacy, organizational change, and systemic change is proposed.

Conclusions:

• Wellness Legal Partnerships (WLPs) are essential to address patient harm from healthcare corporatization.
• This new practice model can protect patients and physicians.
• WLPs can foster systemic change for improved health outcomes.