common sense

If an Advocate Launches in the Forest, and No One Hears….

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Consider Bertha. Bertha has been knitting since learning how at age 12. She’s a wonderful knitter! She has been knitting for decades – scarves, sweaters, hats, gloves and mittens, socks, you name it – then giving her creations away to friends, relatives, even grandbabies of friends. Everyone who knows Bertha recognizes her superb knitting skills. Because of her extensive experience, she considers herself to be a professional. Her passion is knitting! So last year, Bertha decided to open a business as a knitting teacher. After all, as much as she knows about knitting, she knows she’ll be a great teacher! …

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Open Enrollment – Confusion Spells Opportunity

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What a MESS Open Enrollment is this year! No matter where your health insurance comes from – an employer, the Obamacare exchanges, or Medicare – it’s changed up, switched up, and more confusing than it has ever been. YOU, as an independent health or patient advocate or care manager live (and fight) in this world of “let’s make money from patients even if we have to deny the services they need” world. You know what it’s like having to get a treatment, or claim, or hospitalization approved for someone who has inadequate insurance coverage. You know what it’s like when …

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SAFE! … or Maybe Not?

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Safety has been on my mind this week. It’s one of those concepts that, when related to patient advocacy and care management, can be applied in so many ways, with not so many easy answers. What kind of safety? Physical safety, of course. AND financial safety. Whose safety? Your clients’ safety, of course. AND yours. The questions aren’t so much about what is safe, or what isn’t. The questions are about judgment, timing, and consequences, and recognizing safety issues when the problems are obvious – vs – those times that are less obvious that we might miss all together – …

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They’re Not Us. We’re Not Them. The Difference Is Defined by Consequences.

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quote by Ezra Taft Benson

Those of us who stay on top of patient advocacy-related news got a jolt from this headline, “Patient Advocacy Groups Rake In Donations From Pharma.” Just the jolt itself suggests that a few clarifications need to be made about our work as independent, private patient advocates. This is a topic I have written about several times in the past, but because it has big ripple effects, and because some of the people you connect with may be confused, you’ll need to clarify for them, so it bears repeating. It’s about allegiance. And it’s classified in the same sphere of conversations …

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Mr. Pareto, Mr. Juran, Mr. Koch, Garden Peas, and Your Care Management Practice

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Chances are you’ve never heard of the three gentlemen named in today’s post title: Vilfredo Pareto, Joseph Juran, or Richard Koch. Nor can you imagine how they – and garden peas – relate to advocacy. Yet, the principle they have in common affects your work and ability to succeed, especially in the early days of your practice building. Unfortunately, most newly minted advocates not only don’t realize that, but they ignore it – at their peril. So what principle am I talking about? This post is intended to light a fire under you if who can’t figure out why you …

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My Person! My People! Building Partnerships, Expanding Your Practice

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Are you a TV watcher? I am. Big time. I love TV. And because of that, more often than I care to admit, I draw inspiration from TV shows and characters. (As a side confession here, we’ve been binge-watching The West Wing, and have found that comparing it to today’s presidential politics is like marrying whiplash to an out-of-body experience. Right? But I digress….) Today we’re going to draw inspiration from three very different, very diverse TV personalities or characters: weatherman Al Roker from the Today Show, Elmo from Sesame Street, and Meredith Gray of Gray’s Anatomy. Stay tuned… we’ll …

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What Do You Believe? Why? A Marketing Proposition

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What do you do for a living? What sort of business do you run? That’s a classic business question, and those who understand marketing and PR, and have been in business during the last decade, might respond to the questions with their “elevator pitch.” If you’re not familiar with that term “elevator pitch”, you should be. An elevator pitch is a 10-20 second (yes, second!) overview of your business, so-named because you should be able to deliver it to a fellow passenger in the time it takes you to share an elevator ride to the top floor of a not-very-tall …

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