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Got Business? AdvoConnection One Day Business Institute – Reserve Your Spot Now

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Most members of AdvoConnection are aware of the upcoming Business Institute, but for those of you who aren’t members – you are invited, too! The cost to attend goes up this week, so this is the time to make your commitment. Topics will include legal, insurance, marketing, tools, money and certification. Here are some of the questions we will answer: Do you have the right insurance at the best price? What forms do you need and what makes your contracts legally binding? What’s the latest on certification issues? How can you deal with business problems your client poses, like not […]

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The Option of Saying “NO”

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Several months ago I wrote about the tendency of big-hearted advocates to over-extend themselves with volunteer work; that when someone needs their help, but doesn’t have the means to pay them, they don’t know how to say “no.” We looked at some of the ways to get past that inability in order to keep our businesses moving forward. Truth is, that is only one of the circumstances where “no” is the right answer. That’s true whether it is us, as professional advocacy business owners who must choose to say no, or whether we must help our clients choose “no” if

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Insurance Reimbursements? Not Exactly a Pot of Gold

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A recent post from a member advocate in our AdvoConnection Forum asked if any of our members have experience with working with self-funded insurance to offer patient advocacy services. Wouldn’t that be a great way to establish a big client, with a pot of money that was ready to be paid to private patient advocates? There were no replies to the question. That doesn’t mean that no one has experience with these reimbursements. It just means that no one replied to the question. BUT – the reasons no one replied may be a version of the following:

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Patient Advocacy and the Allegiance Factor

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As we prepare for Private Professional Patient Advocates Week next week, I’ve been asked by a handful of people what the difference is between a private patient advocate and any other health advocate. It’s an important question, and the answer is actually quite simple. The difference between a private patient advocate or navigator, and those found in hospitals, through insurance companies, or other places, is what I call The Advocate’s Allegiance Factor. It’s based on who is producing the paycheck. Private patient advocates are paid directly by the patient or the patient’s caregiver and have only one allegiance – to

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Can a True Patient Advocate Be Paid by Someone Else?

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Several questions have come my way recently about what kinds of job opportunities might exist for patient advocates. I refer people to an article I’ve written elsewhere, but the real answer is – to be a true advocate, you must analyze who is paying for your services, and what your responsibility will be to them. Finding an Employer In 2011, most of the job possibilities for patient advocates are found either with hospitals or insurance companies. Hospitals have, for a long time, employed patient advocates, sometimes called patient representatives, who are tasked with helping patients. And word comes from an

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What’s the Difference Between a Patient Advocate and a Geriatric Care or Case Manager?

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One of our APHA members asked me about these differences a day or two ago… So I thought I would share my reply with you. She had called on a nursing home to see if they had interest in recommending her services to the families of some of its residents. The nursing home director replied that they had a team of geriatric case managers they worked with – and asked what services she, the patient advocate, could provide that GCMs could not. Since she really couldn’t come up with a useful answer, she asked me if I knew the differences

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Is a Patient Advocate or Navigator a Qualified Medical Expense for Patients?

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In the process of writing about Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) I began looking at what constituted a “qualified medical expense,” which is the list of the products and services the IRS lets us pay for tax-free. They are those expenses that we can either claim on our taxes, or pay for through the use of an HSA, MSA or FSA. (What would the IRS ever do without acronyms> But I digress…) After looking at the list of expenses, I began to wonder whether a patient / taxpayer who hires and pays for a health or

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