| |
Private Professional Patient Advocates Week
The
Profession of Patient Advocacy
|
|
|
Patient Advocacy is a fast
growing profession. |
|
• |
Cited as one of the
fastest growing professions of the upcoming
decade, private patient advocacy is, indeed,
growing rapidly. Recognizing the healthcare
system has changed to the point where they don't
recognize it, and fearful they aren't getting
the care they need for the cost of that care,
patients and their caregivers are increasingly
reaching out to patient advocates to get the
help they need.
You may recognize private patient advocates
using different terms: health advocates, patient
or health navigators,
case managers, care coordinators, doulas and others; all
names that represent someone who works
one-on-one with patients as individuals.
Read more about the growing profession from
Entrepreneur Magazine,
US News & World Report, and
O Magazine. |
|
|
|
|
How do advocates help
patients and caregivers? |
|
•
|
Advocates offer a wide
range of services ranging from accompanying
patients to their doctors' appointments, to
sitting by the bedside in the hospital, to
reviewing and negotiating medical bills - and
everything in between. Here is a master
list of the
types of services advocates offer.
(Note: not all patients' advocates offer all
services.)
Some advocates focus on one particular disease
or approach to care. For example, an advocate
might work only with cancer patients. Another
advocate might focus on complementary and
alternative treatments. Still others have
nothing to do with care itself, instead focusing
on the billing aspects of a patients' medical
care, or providing mediation services to
families that must make decisions about an
elderly parent.
The benefit to both patients and caregivers is peace of mind, and
the ability to put their efforts toward healing,
or
supporting their loved one who needs care,
knowing a professional is handling the important
details. |
|
|
|
|
Why do patients need
advocates? I thought doctors, nurses and
other providers offered those types of care and
services? |
|
•
|
Doctors, nurses and other
providers have constraints on their work and
abilities that preclude them from being devoted
to one patient's needs.
Those providers work with hundreds or thousands
of patients, dozens every day. An advocate
focuses on that one patient who needs his or her
help.
Those providers are employed by a practice, a
hospital, or another providing facility. They
derive their paychecks from that organization
and therefore are beholden to that organization
first - and their patients second. A
private advocate is beholden only to his or her
patient. (This is called the
Allegiance Factor.)
At the end of a long workday, a traditional
provider goes home, then starts again the next
day with another several dozen patients, trying
to solve their problems. A patient
advocate may be on call 24/7, and the next day,
is still helping his or her individual patient
who has ongoing needs. |
|
|
|
|
Who pays for the
advocates' services? |
|
•
|
Private professional
patient advocates are usually paid directly by
the patient or his caregiver. Some employers are providing patient advocacy support
to their employees. Insurance and other
payers do not provide reimbursement to private
patient advocates.
Not everyone can afford to hire an advocate, but
many can and do. A good metaphor is to think of
private advocates the way some families regard
private schools. When a patient faces difficult
debilitation or a life-compromising (or ending)
illness, a private advocate may seem very
affordable, and necessary. When a patient
or family faces financial devastation from
medical bills that are too high, then a private
billing advocate may be financially lifesaving. |
|
|
|
|
Are jobs available for
those who might choose patient advocacy as a
profession? |
|
•
|
This
website addresses private professional advocacy
- those advocates who are self-employed, or work
in small businesses, providing services to
individuals. For those who are willing to
go into business for themselves, or join forces
with someone who is building a private advocacy
business, the sky is the limit.
There are many other forms of advocacy as well,
including hospital patient advocates, advocates
who work with various disease organizations
(often as volunteers) and others. There
are plentiful jobs in those areas, but they are
not considered to be private
professional patient advocates. |
|
|
|
|
How many advocates are
there across the United States? |
|
•
|
An educated
guesstimate of the numbers of privately paid
professional advocates would be 300 or more in
the US. Hundreds are
training to become
advocates. Still hundreds more are considering
advocacy as a career.
We predict the profession will grow 200% to 300%
per year over the next decade as more and more
citizens demand their services, and as the
number of advocates rises to meet the need.
Aging baby-boomers, and the increasing needs of
individuals trying to obtain care in a confusing
healthcare system (see question about healthcare
reform, below) will fuel the profession.
As of 2013, there aren't enough advocates to
meet the demand in either the United States or
Canada. The fastest growing regions for
the profession are Boston, Washington,
DC-Virginia-Maryland, New York City-New Jersey,
most cities in Florida, Phoenix and Tucson, the
Bay Area of California and Seattle. Most areas
of the US and Canada know little or nothing
about patient advocacy. |
|
|
|
|
What kind of background,
experience or training do private advocates
have? |
|
•
|
People
choosing private advocacy as a profession come
from many different backgrounds, and have many
reasons for doing the work they do. Some
have been nurses or doctors, became frustrated
with the system that depends on cost-cutting and
reimbursements, and have decided to shift their
focuses to patients as individuals. Other
advocates have not worked previously in
healthcare; instead they found themselves
helping an adult parent, a child or a friend
navigate a medical problem, and now find they
are interested in doing the same for others.
To meet the needs of all these reasons for
choosing advocacy, and therefore the many
different kinds of training they will need, a
number of organizations and universities have
developed courses and programs for potential
patients' advocates to learn their new trade.
Find a master list of courses and programs here.
Three professional organizations exist to provide
continuing education and support to patient
advocates.
NAHAC, the National Association of Health
Advocacy Consultants and
PPAI (Professional Patient Advocate
Institute) provide support for
advocacy itself (best practices, ethics). The
Alliance of
Professional Health Advocates provides business support for
advocates on legal, insurance, financial and marketing
matters. |
|
|
|
|
Are patient advocates
licensed? Or certified in some way? |
|
•
|
No.
As of early 2013, no states license patient
advocates, nor is there a nationally-recognized
certification, accreditation or other credential
assigned to patient advocates.
Some of the educational programs offered (see
above) provide a certificate of completion for
those who finish their programs, but those are
no nationally-recognized credentials or
certifications. See
The Myth of Patient Advocacy Certification. |
|
|
|
|
How are patient advocates
regarded by doctors, nurses and other providers? |
|
•
|
There is a
range of reaction from providers.
Those who have never worked with an advocate
before have many questions, and may be
reluctant, at first, to work with one more
person in the doctor-patient relationship,
especially one they don't know.
Those doctors and nurses who have worked with
advocates recognize what an advantage it is to
THEIR work. They spend less time having to
re-describe or reiterate their instructions to a
patient, knowing the advocate is there to
facilitate with the patient. Instead of
spending their appointment time with
explanations or long descriptions for patients,
they can rely on the advocate to do that work
for them.
Medical professionals who have worked with
patient advocates are some of the biggest
champions of the advocacy profession. |
|
|
|
|
How will the Affordable
Care Act (healthcare reform) affect this advocacy
profession, or a patient's ability to get help
from a patient advocate? |
|
•
|
As the
United States reforms its approach to how
medical care is provided, and as more than 32
million new people join the ranks of those who
are able to access care, there will be more
confusion than ever before. More and more citizens
will find themselves frustrated,
angry, and sicker than they might have been.
Consolidation of doctors practices into hospital
systems mean patients are becoming more squeezed
than ever before. And they are noticing.
Their frustration, and their decreasing access
to affordable care, is one of the drivers for
the growth of this profession.
Patient advocates will be ready to help those
patients when they need someone to sort out the
confusion, allay the frustration, and provide
the advice those patients need to get the
healthcare they deserve. |
|
|
|
|
|
Read some success
stories, and find advocates and patients to
interview. |
|
|
............................................... |
|
Do you have a question about private patient
advocacy not answered here?
Please contact us. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
