title: Keeping the Heat on for Children's Health: A Successful Medical-Legal Partnership Initiative to Prevent Utility Shutoffs in Vulnerable Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Energy insecurity may result in adverse consequences for children's health, particularly for children with special health needs or chronic health conditions. We aimed to determine whether a multimodal intervention addressing energy insecurity within the framework of a medical-legal partnership (MLP) resulted in an increase in the provision of certifications of medical need for utility coverage in an inner city academic primary care practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Working within a medical-legal partnership, we standardized criteria for providers approving medical need utility certification requests. We compared prior-year utility certification requests and approvals (pre-intervention) with the intervention year for families who reported energy insecurity on a waiting-room screening questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between the first and second years of the study, certification of medical need approvals increased by 65%, preventing utility shut-offs for 396 more families with vulnerable children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Energy insecurity can be screened for and addressed in a busy urban practice, potentially improving the wellbeing of vulnerable children.
authors: Daniel R
authors: DR
authors: Taylor
authors: Bruce A
authors: BA
authors: Bernstein
authors: Eileen
authors: E
authors: Carroll
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Oquendo
authors: Linda
authors: L
authors: Peyton
authors: Lee M
authors: LM
authors: Pachter
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006361:Heating; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D033241:Lawyers / Q000523:psychology; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011203:Poverty; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014481:United States; D035862:Vulnerable Populations