Health Advocates – Healthcare Professionals Who Work for You
This month on the Whole Life List, we are documenting our medical providers and our health and long- term care insurance providers.
As you review your list of medical providers, reflect on how you feel about them and their staff. Do they all seem competent and are you satisfied with the service you are receiving? If you have a serious condition or multiple conditions, how do you know you are getting the best care possible? If you have to go to the hospital, how can you get good care and avoid becoming the victim of a medical error? How can you navigate your medical insurance and pay only what is necessary?
I’d like to introduce you to a healthcare professional you may not have on your list, but one you should consider engaging if you are a senior and/or actively receiving medical treatment for a serious condition: A Health Advocate.
What is a Health Advocate?
According to the website of Montgomery Health Advocates, a health advocate is
“someone who helps you make sense of your medical situation and helps you understand your treatment options, including their risks and benefits. A health advocate supports you as you make decisions about your health care in partnership with your health care providers… When a health advocate accompanies you to the doctor’s appointments or to the hospital to act as a second set of eyes and ears and facilitate that provider/patient partnership, then patients are able to spend their time healing and getting healthy.”
Your health advocate can be your spouse, another family member, a friend, or a professional advocate. The important thing is that they must be able to navigate the medical system and you must be able to trust them. If you don’t have a family member or friend to serve in this role, there are now professional health advocates. The complexity of our healthcare system has given rise to this new profession and its members are often nurses, doctors, social workers, and aging lifecare professionals.
What are the benefits of hiring a Health Advocate?
There are many benefits to having a health advocate:
They can hear what you hear at the medical visits. Two sets of ears and two brains are better than one when processing and remembering the information that is provided by the doctors and nurses.
They work for you and no one else. Their allegiance is to you and your health.
They will understand your condition(s) and will ask the questions you didn’t even know you should ask. They will also translate medical-ese into language that is easy for you to understand.
They will help you evaluate treatment options and decide on the best treatment.
These are just a few of the benefits of having an advocate. The main benefit is having less stress and more confidence in managing your condition(s) and working within our complicated medical system.
How Can I Find a Health Advocate?
Several organizations provide advocate training and lists of advocates on their sites, including the Professional Patient Advocate Institute, the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates, and the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants.
It is important to note that there are no state licensing requirements or national accreditation or certification tests for patient advocates. Ask for references from your trusted advisors, check references and assess an individual’s experience and history carefully before hiring them.
If you are in the Washington, DC area and want to hire a health advocate, I highly recommend Mary Anne Hardy at Montgomery Health Advocates and Dana Hutson at Cancer Champions. I’m sure there are many more excellent advocates out there and I encourage you to find one today.