patient advocacy | APHA Blog : The Alliance of Professional Health Advocates

Confessions of a Failure

5 minutes of reading / 4 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / August 10, 2020

Think of the successful business people you know or know of. They probably run different kinds of businesses, even non-profits. Their businesses are different sizes, too – from solopreneurs to multi-national conglomerates. They represent different sectors of business from manufacturing and selling products to offering personal services – and everything in between. What is the first thing most of them have in common? Most of them, at one time or another, have failed. Some of their failures were highly visible – and well publicized. Some of their failures are never to be spoken of (meaning we have no idea what […]

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Beware Those Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing

6 minutes of reading / 5 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / July 6, 2020

This post was originally published in July 2013, and was updated in July 2020. Two unrelated stories have crossed my path, but their bottom lines are the same. It’s too easy to be fooled. Story #1: … is based on a scathing article from the Wall Street Journal about the amount of money medical device companies pay to the doctors who use their products. The story is mostly focused on investigations from the Justice Department starting with one doctor who lived and worked in California, Dr. Aria Sabit, who insisted on using certain spinal implant products because he owns part

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“I’ve done advocacy for friends and loved ones all my life. Now I just want to get paid for it!”

5 minutes of reading / 2 Comments / By Trisha Torrey / June 15, 2020

I wish I had a nickel for every time someone told me “I want to join the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates because I’m good at advocacy, I’ve done it for years for friends and family, and now I just want figure out how to get paid for it.” Honestly> Sometimes those words make me want to scream, because I know they will never make that leap. The problem is, no matter how simple the answer, no matter how many opportunities they have – the majority of people who can make that statement will never be paid for independent advocacy

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Patient Advocates and the Coronavirus

5 minutes of reading / 1 Comment / By Trisha Torrey / March 4, 2020

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know you can’t turn on the news, read news online or in a newspaper, or attend an event, or go anywhere – in person or online – without seeing or hearing something about the 2019 coronavirus. It’s the only health-related story that can knock the horror of uncontrolled medical bills lower down the list of headlines. And, of course, because its eventual impact is totally unknown, it frightens people in ways only the media knows how to frighten people. Since we all work in the world of health and medical care, and

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Need More Clients? 3 Marketing Realities and Resources

5 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / January 20, 2020

“My directory listing doesn’t attract enough clients. What am I doing wrong?” “I get calls, but we hang up the phone without a contract! What am I doing wrong?” “I finished working with my client and don’t have anyone else to help. Now what?” These are questions I am asked frequently and repeatedly. Maybe you have the same ones! The answer to each one relates to marketing.

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Get Unstuck – Learn to Overcome the Paralysis of Analysis

5 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment / By Trisha Torrey / January 3, 2020

Common scenario: You have dreamed about becoming a private health /patient advocate or care manager for a while. You know you can do it, you know you are a good advocate, your heart really WANTS to change careers to advocacy, you know people need help with their medical system challenges… Plus everyone you know thinks it’s a great idea! They all tell you “OMG! There is such a huge need!” Maybe you have helped friends and family members over the years, or you have been a doctor or nurse for decades. (I often hear, I’ve been an advocate all my

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The Search Meter, Customer Service, and Fulfilling Your Need to Know

4 minutes of reading / By Trisha Torrey / July 15, 2019

In your pre-advocacy lifetime, you may never have thought you would be dealing with “customer service.” And yet, now that you’ve started working with clients, that’s what you’re required to do every time you interface with a customer (client) in any way: in-person, through phone calls, or email, or even postal mail. Your website represents customer service. Even the signature on your email is a form of customer service. Most new business owners who have never before lived in a customer service world believe that all they need to do is listen and respond. But that’s really only a start.

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