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2017 State of Patient Advocacy and the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates

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As we kick off 2017, let’s look at the past year in review. What is the status of this profession of health and patient advocacy? How well is APHA serving the needs of patient-clients and its members? We began 2016 with a similar reality check. The bottom line was that our profession is growing, but not nearly fast enough! The need for our services is so very much larger than the number of people to fill it. That status has not improved; in fact, the need is bigger than ever before. In that same vein, but without including the more …

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Charge More! It’s Good for Everyone (Including Your Clients)!

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It’s the question I’m asked by newbies more frequently than any other: How much can I charge? (BTW – what they really mean is – How much can I make?) To answer those questions in 2014, I posed these questions: What is it worth to find someone who can provide quality to a life that has little or no quality because of health problems? What is it worth to find someone who can save you tens of thousands of dollars, or to prevent you from going bankrupt? What is it worth to find someone who can alleviate your fear and …

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Shooting Your Advocacy Practice in the Foot

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Readers of this blog may remember that my husband and I have been in the process of moving – from Upstate NY (where they had 40 inches of snow last week!) to Central Florida. (No, no snow here so far 🙂 ) Moving is a bear – there are no two ways about that. Ours took place in two stages: first to a rental house, putting 75% of our household goods into storage. Then Stage Two, this past week, moving into our newly built home, bringing our goods out of storage. Now, of course, we’re trying to make our way …

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What the Presidential Election Results Mean for Patient Advocates

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When President Barack Obama ran for office in 2008, healthcare reform was already an enormous and contentious topic. In those days, I was invited to speak to dozens of groups of patients and caregivers to help audiences sort out the issues that comprised healthcare reform so they could, on their own, decide which aspects (if any) were important to them. From the concept of “universal” healthcare through a public option, to coverage for pre-existing conditions, to portability, tort reform, free vaccinations to develop “herd immunity,” and many more, we looked at the whole of the topic as objectively as possible. …

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Revisiting the Question: Advocate and Proxy, Too? Making Decisions for Clients

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image - man proxy question

Two years ago we asked whether a health/patient advocate can also be a decision-maker for her client in the form of being a healthcare proxy or guardian (the patient-designated person who makes end-of-life decisions for the patient, based on wishes the patient has legally documented). Since the ethics and standards of the original advocate role very specifically state that an advocate WILL NOT and CAN NOT make decisions for a client, would the new role of proxy or guardian create a conflict-of-interest? The scenario shared was that “Gwen” had been Mrs. Smith’s advocate for a long period of time and …

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Like Putting Ponze in Charge of My Retirement Savings – a Rant

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Charles Ponze

I live and work in Florida now. For the first time in my adult life, I live in a state where there’s a real possibility that my vote in the upcoming presidential election will make a difference. As a result, when I sit down to watch TV in the evening, I see a constant barrage of the most objectionable commercials. This candidate bashing that candidate. “Facts” that aren’t facts. Claims that have been disproved over and over again. Detestable. You may be surprised to know that THOSE commercials aren’t the ones that upset me the most! In fact, I no …

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Of Heroes, Trust, Discord, Arrogance, and Karma – Part I

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copyright Sergey Nivens 123RF

This year I can tell I’m finally getting beyond the trauma. It’s a feeling of freedom to some extent, but sort of a shame to another. And you know me – I always end up analyzing these things (or, perhaps over-analyzing them) – enough so that I’m going to share some of that analysis with you. The trauma I refer to was the cancer (lymphoma) misdiagnosis in 2004 that propelled me to change careers to patient empowerment, and eventually advocacy. By trauma, I mean that I was told I that in a few short months I would be dead, and …

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