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Assessing Value: The Cost of Meat and Potatoes

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An Open Letter to an Advocate Who Questions Her APHA Membership Received last week from Esther (not her real name): If you would please clarify a few things I’d really appreciate it.It’s time for my PACE membership to renew and I am trying to decide whether to spend that money. I want to have my name listed in your directory in the future, but your Premium membership is quite out of my budget. . Do you not offer beginner discounts? Secondly, I currently am an unemployed family caregiver and have no income. A basic renewal at $49, which is more […]

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Atychi-what? Overcoming Atychiphobia

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feargirl2

Over the years, dozens of professional advocate wannabes have talked to me about fear, including Fear of failure Fear of doing the wrong thing for a client Fear of failure Fear of losing their savings Fear of failure Fear of making a mistake in their work Fear of failure Fear of standing up to authority Fear of failure If your fears stand in the way of your success, then you have only two choices:

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Starting Out? Why a Non-Profit Practice Is NOT the Right Answer for You

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This is a question – or a statement – I hear frequently from those who wish to be independent health or patient advocates who are considering which business formation they need to set up to be independent.* After considerations of LLCs, or S-Corps or others, they tell me they want to establish a non-profit, then ask me if we offer resources to help them. Fay is one such advocate wannabe. She asked, “Do you have any advice for establishing a non-profit or not-for-profit agency to help patients?” Unfortunately, her question was being asked for the wrong reasons. Why?

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How Does a Patient Choose the Best Advocate to Hire?

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I’ve been working on updating the AdvoConnection Directory website because it was time, because search engines look favorably upon updates. And because my not-frequent-enough review of the site’s analytics produced a big surprise! A surprise I’ll share with you here today. To be clear – no changes were made to the actual search and profile areas – those all belong to our listed advocates who make those changes themselves. Instead, I edited and updated the support pages – everything from the homepage, to the About Us page, to the “how to choose and interview an advocate” page. For some background:

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The Momma Test

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Portrait of an old woman with her adult daughter.

Over the years, one of my favorite things to do has been to work with / speak to / address college students. They are young, aren’t yet set in their ways, still hope to save the world, are naive to the “follow the money” aspects of healthcare and, honestly, it’s just plain fun. Last week I had the privilege of participating in an ethics debate for a well-known and respected university in a course called Controversies in Healthcare (medical, legal, and bio ethics), to a combination group of law students and medical students, on the topic of independent advocacy –

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Successes, Failures, and My Biggest Surprise

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12 years. While on the one hand, 12 years seems like a looong time, on the other hand, it has gone by in the blink of an eye. I’m referring to the 12 years I’ve focused my professional life on building the profession of independent health and patient advocacy, having made the decision in 2007 to begin building an online presence for advocates through the AdvoConnection Directory website. It eventually launched in Fall 2009* and evolved to become The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates. So I’ve been giving thought to what I consider to be our biggest successes, biggest failures,

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How Much Do Patient Advocates Charge?

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I’m often asked what questions people ask me most frequently. The answer is some variation of this family of questions: How much does an advocate charge? What is the hourly rate for health or patient advocates? How much money do patient advocates make? How much money do patient advocates get paid? What is the average amount patient advocates charge? We’ll begin by answering with other questions (bad form, but it makes our point…) How much does it cost to take a vacation? What does it cost to go to college? How much more can I make if I get a

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