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Who Deserves a Patient Advocate’s Help?

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I’ve wrestled with this question more than once. It’s the question raised on occasion by those who talk about universal healthcare, and a for-profit healthcare system. It’s a question asked by those who are concerned that not everyone in the United States has access to healthcare. It’s asked by almost anyone who asks me what I do for a living. The question is, “Doesn’t providing private patient advocacy services only to those who can afford them, just create one more division between the “haves” and the “have nots?” Lots of soul searching, and more than a few conversations have produced

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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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Lessons from The Loss of a Patient

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Sooner or later, it happens to every patient advocate or navigator who works with patients on the medical aspects of their care (as opposed to other forms of advocacy, like billing or legal advocates). One of “our” patients – someone whose hand we have held, who we have protected from problems in the hospital, who depended on our advocacy expertise as a way to make the rough road through disease and debilitation smoother… A patient we had built a comfortable and friendly relationship with, a patient we invested ourselves and our work in… That patient dies. And we feel like

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Doctor Recommendations – Do You? Should You?

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I was quite surprised in a conversation recently with an advocate who is not (yet) a member of AdvoConnection. OK. That’s putting it mildly. I was actually stunned. “Why do people feel well served by you?” I asked him. “Because I have a beeline into all the good doctors,” he replied. When I asked him to explain further, he said it was because he knew the best doctors to recommend and which ones to tell patients to avoid. [Pause. Letting that sink in…] In conversations with both long-time advocates, and lawyers, too… and honestly – what makes common sense –

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Patients’ Advocates in Hospitals – Going to the Line

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Updated March 2017 From time to time I hear from a patient who complains about a situation that occurred during a hospital stay – usually the spouse or child of a hospital patient. The great majority of those notes say, “I spoke to the patient advocate in the hospital but they couldn’t do anything for me!” When I reply, I explain that the hospital patient advocate works for the hospital – not for the patient. Hospital patient advocates usually report to the legal/risk management department in the hospital and get their paychecks from the hospital. They help when they can,

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The Myth of Patient Advocacy Certification

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This post, originally written in January 2011, was accurate at the time; there was no universally recognized patient advocacy certification. That changed in early 2018 when the first certification exam was offered by the Patient Advocate Certification Board. As of June 2021, there are currently 889 BCPA certified advocates. Find updated information at the end of the post. (Updated: June 2021) I hear frequently from people asking about certification for patient advocates. It’s confusing, because they read that there are courses that will help them become certified, and then they find other pieces I have written about the lack of

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Enough is Enough! Helping Elderly Patients Make Decisions

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One of our AdvoConnection members, Ken Schueler, shared a favorite article of his, published in JAMA a couple of years ago, and a good reminder of one of our roles as patient advocates. Written by Dr. Jennifer M. Soyke, it tells about an elderly patient named Lisa who passed away from Genug Syndrome. (Unfortunately, JAMA requires a subscription to read this piece in its entirety, so please forgive paraphrasing here – but I think you’ll get the point…) Never heard of Genug Syndrome? You won’t find it in the medical literature.

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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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Why Can’t Patients Be Their Own Advocates?

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Imagine – you suffer chest pains and are swept off to the ER. The pain meds leave you too groggy to make good decisions. Who will help you? Or – difficult symptoms result in a diagnosis that leaves you stunned. You leave the doctor’s office remembering very little of what you’ve been told. Now you aren’t even sure what to do next. Or – you’ve begun to find it confusing to keep track of all your medications. You’re concerned you’ll make a mistake. Which ones are you supposed to take with food? Or on an empty stomach? What about having

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Dear Nurses, We Are Here to Help

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For the second time in just a few days, I’ve learned from an AdvoConnection advocate member that a nurse has become defensive and territorial in reaction to his choice of career. Now, please know that I’m not dogging on all nurses. Not all all. Instead I’m looking at this as an opportunity to clarify – for everyone’s benefit, not just nurses’. Last week I answered the question, “Does a patient advocate have to be a nurse?” The question came in response to an experience where nurses had actually looked down their noses at another advocate, a non-nurse, suggesting she did

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