Former New York City Bar Association Executive Director Named as President of the Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership
The Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership (MSMLP), which offers free legal services to vulnerable patients, has appointed Barbara Berger Opotowsky as President.
Ms. Opotowsky joins MSMLP after serving for 15 years as the Executive Director of the New York City Bar Association where she was responsible for the operation of the 24,000-member organization. Ms. Opotowsky was involved with access-to-justice issues at the Association through its sister organization, the City Bar Justice Center. Joining the Partnership will allow her to continue her work to increase access to justice for the most vulnerable patients in the Mount Sinai Health System.
Prior to the City Bar, Ms. Opotowsky was the President of the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, and a lawyer in private practice.
“Barbara brings a wealth of legal experience and social justice advocacy that will lead the Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership in connecting patients with the legal help they need for holistic well-being,” said Beth Essig, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Mount Sinai Health System.
Mount Sinai Health System established the MSMLP a year ago to provide the most vulnerable of its patients with free legal services to prevent and remedy the social and environmental conditions that can negatively affect a patient’s overall well-being. MSMLP brings together lawyers and health care teams, implementing integrated approaches to holistically caring for Mount Sinai’s patients by giving patients legal help in the areas of housing, education, benefits, family law issues, wills, and immigration.
The Mount Sinai Medical Legal Partnership Board is co-chaired by Bettina Plevan, a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, and Allison Charney, a partner at Foley & Lardner, LLP.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
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