The University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare have come together to establish a remarkable Health Equity Clinic. This initiative is set to open its doors in January 2025 and is poised to make a significant impact on addressing health inequities and outcome disparities. Through a joint medical-legal advocacy approach and interdisciplinary interventions, the clinic aims to bring about positive change in the healthcare landscape.

Uniting Law and Healthcare to Advance Health Equity

Partnership with Hartford Hospital

The Health Equity Clinic will operate in close collaboration with Hartford Hospital, which serves as Hartford HealthCare's flagship acute-care hospital. Law students will have the unique opportunity to delve into the complex intersection of poverty, health, and law. They will gain a deep understanding of the concept of health equity and its profound impact on health outcomes. Moreover, they will learn how the law can be harnessed to enhance health and how healthcare providers and lawyers can work together to create innovative and measurable interventions and remedies for patients and clients. Law students will actively engage with medical staff in the hospital's primary care clinics, seeing patients and conducting intakes and interviews.This partnership allows for a seamless integration of legal and medical expertise, enabling a more comprehensive approach to patient care. It represents a significant step forward in addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals in terms of their health and well-being.

Advancing Community Service and Student Learning

UConn Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson expressed great enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "We're thrilled to join with Hartford HealthCare in this groundbreaking initiative. The Health Equity Clinic will advance and expand our commitment to community service, providing invaluable legal services to an underserved population. It will offer our students a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful, hands-on work while gaining experience in a vitally important field of law. We are extremely grateful for the support of Hartford HealthCare and the tireless efforts of our faculty, staff, and students to bring this vision to life."The clinic will not only provide on-site and remote consultations to Hartford Hospital's clinical staff when health-harming legal issues intersect with patient care but will also focus on adult patients with a history of substandard outcomes. By addressing legal issues such as access to healthcare, food and income security, disability discrimination, and program eligibility, the clinic aims to improve overall patient well-being.

Training and Interaction with Patients

Law students enrolled in the Health Equity Clinic will receive extensive training in the social determinants of health. They will interact with patients in clinical settings by working with Hartford Hospital's medical providers to identify and address the legal barriers that directly impact clinical care. This interaction allows students to gain practical experience and develop the skills needed to make a difference in patients' lives.As Dr. Suparna Dutta, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Hartford Hospital, noted, "As a physician who works in our community health clinics, I am thrilled to see the launch of the Health Equity Clinic in partnership with the University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare. This initiative embraces our wholehearted commitment to providing access to care, while placing a strong emphasis on the social determinants of health. It will allow us to be laser focused on the legal challenges individuals face who struggle with poverty and other systemic barriers to optimizing health. This partnership is truly an innovative approach to provide high quality, holistic care for our patients and ensure access for all."

Collaborating for Patient Outcomes

David Mack, EVP and Chief Legal Officer at Hartford HealthCare, emphasized the significance of the partnership, saying, "The opening of the Health Equity Clinic marks a transformative step in addressing the intricate relationship between social causes of health disparities and law. Through this unique partnership with University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare, law students will gain invaluable insights into health equity; undoubtedly having a profound impact on patient outcomes. By collaborating with medical professionals, they will not only learn how to use the law to improve overall health but will help bridge-the-gap between challenging legal and healthcare needs."The Health Equity Clinic will be a pioneer in central Connecticut, being the only adult-based medical-legal partnership in the region. It will join a select group of academic, law school-based medical-legal partnerships across the country, combining the academic expertise of law school faculty with clinical experience and medical providers who work closely with patient populations at risk.

Leadership and Experiential Education

The clinic's director, Jay Sicklick, a visiting assistant clinical professor of law at UConn Law, is highly regarded in the field. With 24 years of experience as the founder and director of a pediatric-based medical-legal partnership in Hartford and New Haven, Sicklick is well-equipped to lead the Health Equity Clinic.He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity, stating, "I'm grateful for the tremendous opportunity embraced by both UConn and Hartford HealthCare. This partnership will enhance the unique interdisciplinary approach to not only address legal barriers to health equity, but also to create a hands-on system that melds clinical expertise with intensive advocacy training and practice."The Health Equity Clinic builds upon UConn Law's commitment to experiential education and community service. It will be one of seven in-house clinics and seven partnership clinics at UConn Law, offering legal services to the community while providing law students with hands-on training in the practice of law.This collaborative effort between the University of Connecticut and Hartford HealthCare holds great promise in transforming the way healthcare is delivered and addressing the complex issues surrounding health equity. It represents a significant step forward in creating a more equitable and inclusive healthcare system.

On Wednesday, the shares of major healthcare companies witnessed a significant decline of nearly 5%. This downturn was triggered by concerns related to potential alterations in their intricate business models. Among the affected companies are UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, and CVS Health. These entities operate as three of the nation's largest private health insurers and also serve as drug supply chain middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). They possess pharmacy businesses as well. The stock reaction on that day seemed to be a response to the newly introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at breaking up PBMs.

Impact on UnitedHealth Group and Its Significance

UnitedHealth Group's signage was prominently displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images. The shares of major healthcare companies fell as much as 5% on Wednesday, causing concern among investors. UnitedHealth Group, along with Cigna and CVS Health, saw their stocks decline. These companies operate three of the nation's largest private health insurers and PBMs. They also own pharmacy businesses. In early afternoon trading, all three companies' shares were down by at least 4.8%. The stock reaction on Wednesday appeared to be in response to the new bipartisan legislation that aims to break up PBMs, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. PBMs have faced years of scrutiny from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission due to allegations of inflating drug costs to boost their profits.The share moves also came at a time when insurance companies and their practices faced heightened public criticism following the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group's insurance arm, last week. Health stocks had already been on a downward trend in the days after Thompson's killing. A Senate bill, sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., would force the companies that own health insurers or PBMs to divest their pharmacy businesses within three years, according to the Journal. The lawmakers informed the Journal that a companion bill is scheduled to be introduced in the House on Wednesday. "PBMs have manipulated the market to enrich themselves—hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business," Warren said in a release. The release added that healthcare companies that own both PBMs and pharmacies have a "gross conflict of interest that enables these companies to enrich themselves at the expense of patients and independent pharmacies."The largest PBMs – UnitedHealth Group's Optum Rx, CVS Health's Caremark, and Cigna's Express Scripts – are all owned by or connected to health insurers. According to the FTC, they collectively administer about 80% of the nation's prescriptions. PBMs play a crucial role in the drug supply chain in the U.S. They negotiate rebates with drug manufacturers on behalf of insurers, large employers, and federal health plans. They also create formularies that determine which medications are covered by insurance and reimburse pharmacies for prescriptions. The FTC has been conducting an investigation into PBMs since 2022.— CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report