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(Update #3) Starter Ideas for Helping Clients During a Pandemic

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Covid-19 Update: March 21, 2020 Responses to my previous post indicate many advocates are beginning to emerge from your “OMG” moments and trying to figure out how to get started, to prepare yourselves for what is to come. GREAT! Here’s a start – a good idea for getting your head into the right space while you help others: Research local pharmacies, their hours, their delivery options, and phone numbers. Do some outreach to current and pending clients (call, text, or email) to ask them about their supply of their regular, daily meds, and to remind them they will need to

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(Update #2) Fostering the Right Attitude for Your Clients and Your Practice

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Covid-19 Update: March 19, 2020 During the past week, as the coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis has taken over our lives, I have heard from many advocates who are taking all the steps needed to stay safe, who tell me they are recommending such steps to others, and that (in the words of one) they are “just planning to wait it out until this all blows over.” No NO No No No! That is NOT the right thinking for smart practice owners! In fact, it’s just the opposite of how we should be looking at our world right now, as follows:

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Patient Advocates and the Coronavirus

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corona-virus

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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Are You the Chicken? or the Pig?

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If you consider a bacon-and-egg breakfast, what is the difference between the chicken and the pig? It’s a question that determines commitment. While the chicken can produce many eggs over a lifetime, the pig can produce bacon only once. The chicken may be involved in the breakfast, but the pig is totally committed. So what does that have to do with independent advocacy?

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Charging on a Sliding Scale Just Creates a Can of Worms

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sliding scale can of worms

Most advocates and care managers I know have huge hearts. They want to help everyone who needs help! They truly dislike having to charge money for their services (because many have done this work for free for friends and loved ones for a lifetime). Further, in many cases, they don’t give themselves credit for being as capable as they are. So they struggle. They ask themselves how on earth they are going to ask for money from these (possibly desperate) people who contact them, especially when: They are new, and haven’t worked in private practice for very long (if at

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Need More Clients? 3 Marketing Realities and Resources

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marketing target

“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

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brick wall

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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