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RIP Ramona – With Appreciation for The Lessons She Taught Us

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Ramona – whose real name was Rosemary – has died. She did it (mostly) her way. I first shared Ramona/Rosemary’s story with you a few months ago. She had contacted me through my patient empowerment work asking me to help her die. After a heinous surgical medical error many years ago, she could no longer be treated to provide (by her own definition) any quality to her life. So she wanted to put an end to her misery. Her primary care doctor, fearful he would be arrested, refused to help her. After thinking about it long and hard, I decided …

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Contractors, Kick Backs and Clarity – That’s Why We’re Here for Advocates

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(updated January 2017) We’ve seen fireworks in the APHA Forum before. And we’ve dealt with them. The beautiful thing about the Forum is that allows free conversations on every topic imaginable. But of course, as with any group of highly intelligent, motivated and capable people, we’re not always going to agree. We experienced that again this week. One of our very active and valued members had visited her attorney to work on her contracts. She raised the idea of working with independent contractors, and her attorney immediately advised her against it. As she reported in the Forum, “He advised me …

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We Interrupt This Thread for News About a Potential Patient Advocacy Lawsuit

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Last week I shared with you the problems I had with my coffee pot which burned and melted its insides – and then, while shopping for a new one, it reminded me of a lesson in making sure we advocates take care of the little things. My point was that we get hired for the big, important things that our clients need, but that our relationship with them, and our further ability to market our practices, is often dependent on the little things we take care of during the relationship. If we drop the ball on the little things, then …

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My Coffee Pot Caught Fire – and Other Lessons for Advocates

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bad smell

It was the SMELL – you know, that noxious, horrifying smell of burning rubber… That’s what alerted me to my smoldering coffee pot which was no longer just heating my coffee… No flames (OK – so that photo is a bit of exaggeration), no residual damage to my kitchen, but it did take two days to get the smell out of my house. Once the emergency was averted (I admit – the only real emergency was that I really wanted more coffee!) – it was time to get down to the business of purchasing a new coffee pot. So I …

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Of Honor and Yardsticks

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If anyone decides one day to research and write the history of private, independent patient advocacy, they will likely put the genesis of the profession as 2009, when the first two advocacy organizations, NAHAC and APHA / AdvoConnection were launched. Of course, there can’t be such a thing as an organization unless there are people who are looking to be… well… organized. I don’t know how many members NAHAC had when it opened its doors, but APHA / AdvoConnection launched with about 30 interested parties, of whom perhaps a dozen were already working successfully as privately paid advocates. We’re still …

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Don’t Let the YesButs Stand in Your Way

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A Big Yes-But

This post is dedicated to all our APHA members and non-members who have been infested with YesButs. What’s a YesBut? A YesBut is the answer to all those questions and suggestions intended to help them build their practices that they prefer to not think about. Further, it’s the answer they give that, until these same advocates find a solution, indicates they will not succeed. I wish I had a dollar for every YesBut someone fires back at me! “YesBut they need the help so badly and they don’t have any money!” “YesBut I’m afraid to quit my fulltime job until …

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