"Patient Advocate" is a very broad title that encompasses many types of services for patients. While there are a number of big picture types of advocacy, the list below will help you understand better the services a private advocate may provide to an individual patient:
Medical Assistance
This type of advocacy requires knowledge of the healthcare system, and a medical background. Advocates who provide medical assistance can help review diagnoses, treatment options, medical records and test reports, they may accompany a patient to appointments, monitor the patient at the bedside in a hospital or be a good choice for a healthcare proxy.
The advocates and care managers providing this type of care have, in most cases, a medical background; retired doctors or nurses, or someone who spent the first part of his career in a medical capacity. There are some formal programs being developed for assisting patients with medical needs.
Insurance Assistance
Health insurance and other cost and billing issues can be very confusing. Individuals and businesses are available to help patients or their loved ones wade through the confusion. They offer services such as helping to choose the best insurance plan, handling paperwork and insurance filings, negotaiting denials of claims, and Medicare plan decisionmaking.
Home Health Assistance
Unknown just a generation ago, home health assistance is relatively new, but a much in demand service. Home health assistants may or may not have any nursing-type training. They can perform services such as in-home nursing care, home therapy and rehabilitation, and daily living assistance.
Elder and Geriatric Assitance
Similar to home health assistance, although focused on the elderly, this type of assistance may also be found in assisted-living and nursing home settings, and may provide help with Medicare services or hospice services.
Legal Assistance
Sometimes the help needed for medical problems is really more legal in nature. From worker's compensation, to disability filings, to malpractice and medical error review, you may find that your best advocate is a lawyer.
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If you are a patient:
As you reach out to potential advocates to assist you, you'll want to be clear about which services they offer to make sure they are a match for your needs.
If you are considering patient advocacy as a career:
There are attributes and experience you'll need to have in order to be successful and any of these forms of advocacy.
