ANNUAL REPORT | 2017-2018 Our Mission
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ANNUAL REPORT | 2017-2018 our mission The Legal Action Center (LAC) is the only non-profit law and policy organization in the United States whose sole mission is to fight discrimination against people with histories of addiction, HIV/AIDS, or criminal records, and to advocate for sound public policies in these areas. Since our founding in 1973, the Legal Action Center has worked to guard the civil rights and civil liberties of those we serve – and to dismantle discriminatory barriers that systematically deny these rights and liberties. Defending health coverage Maintaining Essential Health Benefits for Substance Use and Mental Health Care Advancing Parity Implementation and Enforcement Increasing Access to Treatment for Justice-Involved Individuals LAC Saved My Life: Jake’s Story Defending patient privacy Confidentiality 10of Substance Use Disorder Treatment HIV and AIDS Privacy LAC Heard My Story: George’s Story Defending access to opportunity Access to Employment Restoration16 of Rights LAC Led Me Home: Jaz’s Story Letter From Board Chair and President 4 In the News 30 Our Board of Directors 225 Our Supporters 32 Our Staff 5 Summary of Our Financial Position 34 Our Approach 6 2017 Arthur Liman Public Interest Awards 35 Our Impact by the Numbers 8 LETTER From the Chair of the Board and the President & Director o deny people their human rights is to deny them their very humanity.” This simple, yet powerful statement by Nelson Mandela resonates deeply with all of us at the Legal Action “T Center. Since our founding over four decades ago, LAC has always been and remains steadfastly committed to defending the civil and human rights of those we serve and pushing back against the many injustices our constituents face. As you will read in this report, the Legal Action Center achieved an unprecedented number of legal and policy triumphs over the past year. A Through free legal services offered in our New York office, we defended thousands of individuals battling substance use disorders and/or living with criminal records and/or HIV/AIDS against discrimination in health care, employment, housing, education, and other basic needs. Across the country, we partnered with hundreds of other social justice and advocacy organizations to strengthen our campaigns to promote equity in our health care and criminal justice systems. Through impact litigation, we established important legal precedents that safeguard the civil rights and liberties of those we serve, including a landmark settlement with Aetna for breaching the HIV confidentiality of more than 13,000 of its members. At the national, state and local levels, we advocated to protect access to health care, opportunity and justice for all. It is only because of the generosity of our supporters that we were able to achieve these important victories for our constituents. All of us at LAC are incredibly grateful to the many individuals, families, foundations, corporate sponsors and government agencies who stand with us in support of this vital work. As we look toward the future, we know that there is much work to be done, and we pledge that the Legal Action Center will work relentlessly to safeguard the human rights and dignity of all we serve. With gratitude, Brad S. Karp Paul N. Samuels 4 Chair of the Board President & Director Brad S. Karp, Chair Mary Beth Forshaw, Vice Chair board Gerald Balacek Marc L. Miller Eric D. Balber Mark C. Morril of directors Elizabeth Bartholet Mary E. Mulligan Suzanne B. Cusack Debra Pantin Stephen M. Cutler Dr. Samuel K. Roberts, Jr. Dawn Dover Elizabeth M. Sacksteder Jason Flom Sharon L. Schneier Alexis Gadsden J. Edward Shaw Doug Liman John J. Suydam Elaine H. Mandelbaum Anthony C. Thompson Kamran Masood Hon. James Yates Michael Meltsner Richard Zabel Arthur L. Liman, Founding Chair Daniel K. Mayers, Chair Emeritus staff Paul N. Samuels, President/Director Sherie V. Boyd Frank Murphy Anita R. Marton, Sr. Vice President Janet Coleman Sarah Nikolic Gabrielle de la Gueronniere Lionel Oglesby Sally Friedman Victoria Palacio Tracie M. Gardner Adela Prignal Norma Juarez Jessica Ramos Arianne Keegan Deborah A. Reid Katarina Leiser Jacqueline Seitz Robert B. Levy Vanessa Severino Stephanie McDaniel Crystal M. Seward Roberta Meyers Sebastian Solomon Phil Miller Kate Wagner-Goldstein Ellen Weber Monica Welby Abigail Woodworth Brent Yoshikami 5 our approach In 2017, Legal Action Center (LAC) redoubled its efforts to fight discrimination against people with histories of addiction, HIV/AIDS, and/or justice involvement. In the last year, LAC secured many important victories – in legal precedents, in federal and state law, and in public awareness of essential rights afforded to people living with substance use disorders (SUD), HIV/AIDS, and criminal records. We are pleased to share some of the highlights of our efforts and the impact that 6 our work had on the lives of those we serve. POLICY COALITIONS & ADVOCACY COLLABORATIONS We advocate at the national, We believe in the power of state, local and federal levels partnerships. By leading to change laws and regulations and working in coalition with that create barriers for millions of advocacy partners both people, to protect individuals from nationally and at the local level, discrimination, and to increase we magnify our voices and their access to opportunity through amplify our impact. policy reform. EDUCATION & TRAINING We provide training and resources to educate directly affected individuals, practitioners, attorneys, and policy-makers about existing and still needed civil rights and privacy protections for people with SUDs, HIV/AIDS and criminal justice involvement. O DIRECT IMPACT LEGAL LITIGATION SERVICES We bring impact litigation to We provide free legal establish important legal precedents, services to approximately challenge systemic human or civil 2,000 New Yorkers rights violations, and expand the rights each year. In 2017, we and protections of those we serve. resolved 2,556 civil legal cases for people who otherwise might not have access to justice. 7 our 1,882 IMPACT by the numbers Provided training and technical assistance in 32STates & DC —educating thousands of practitioners, policy-makers, attorneys, and directly affected individuals about the rights of people with addiction, criminal histories, HIV and AIDS. 8 Provided free legal services to 1,882 New Yorkers, resolving 2,556 civil legal cases for individuals who needed LAC’s help to access justice. Settled a class-action suit on13,000 behalf of more than individuals whose health privacy was breached. campaigns were led by LAC to improve policies and programs for people with mental health or substance 5use disorders, criminal records, or HIV/AIDS. Cited in over 2,000 news stories, including all major media outlets and published 20 op-eds in support of our policy advocacy work. 9 Defending health coverage s we continue to lose an unprecedented number of people to addiction and A suicide, LAC’s longstanding work to increase access to health care and coverage, and to ensure strong patient rights protections, has become ever more urgent. Last year, LAC led efforts to protect and enhance essential federal policies, including: • Maintaining protections for addiction and mental health care coverage in federal law; • Ensuring that mental health and substance use disorder coverage is equal to coverage for other health conditions; and • Defending access to treatment for justice- involved individuals. 10 11 + PROTECTING ADDICTION AND MENTAL ADVANCING PARITY HEALTH COVERAGE AND CARE IMPLEMENTATION During the first several months of 2017, the LAC built upon our longstanding Legal Action Center (LAC) joined with health and leadership in the effort to ensure civil rights advocates from across the country to effective implementation of the defend key protections in the Affordable Care Act Mental Health Parity and Addiction against Congress and the new administration’s Equity Act. Along with our partners, proposed plans to repeal the health law. LAC’s we released a groundbreaking report, efforts focused strongly on defending coverage “Parity Tracking Project: Making Parity of substance use and mental health care and A Reality,” which concluded that the current on ensuring access to coverage for people with enforcement framework – which depends on histories of criminal justice involvement. consumers to complain about parity violations – is fundamentally flawed.The report reviewed Through our leadership and staffing of the Coalition findings from our research and offered for Whole Health, we also advocated for expanded recommendations for improving enforcement of Medicaid coverage and mechanisms that make the law. private insurance coverage more affordable for and accessible to people with mental health Our Parity Tracking report was or substance use problems. The full set of endorsed by the American Medical recommendations are available at Association, which later published https://lac.org/CWHConsensus a comprehensive article describing how the insurance barriers hinder Our recommendations reached policy-makers and effective parity implementation and key Washington audiences via two op-eds in The enforcement. Hill, the first co-authored by Ron Manderscheid and Paul Samuels, Co-Chairs of the Coalition for The findings from our Parity Tracking project Whole Health, and the second co-authored by Tom highlighted the need to jumpstart compliance McLellan, former Office of National Drug Control with the parity law in states across the country. Policy Deputy Director,