Nelson Vergel
Founder, ExcelMale.com
After Elsa Newmyer’s surgery last year went terribly wrong, she was laid up in a hospital bed for months. Dozens of medical bills, some 30 pages long, began piling up. Her husband Larry, who had to manage the payments, was overwhelmed.
“The health care bureaucracy is crippling,” said Ms. Newmyer, 62, a retired teacher who lives in Washington, D.C. “There are lots of layers to get to the right person. So you end up paying bills just because you’ve run out of energy.”
In desperation, she turned to a patient advocacy firm, Patient Navigator, which helps coordinate care, do in-depth clinical research and find appropriate doctors. A professional there examined Ms. Newmyer’s bills, checking for errors, and ultimately negotiated lower payments. The amount saved was at least $10,000, Ms. Newmyer said.
As patients like Ms. Newmyer struggle to cope with the dizzying demands of a trillion-dollar health care system that generates most of its revenues from older people, they are increasingly turning to patient advocates for help. The profession, officially seven years old, now has about 650 advocates, including doctors, and is growing rapidly, according to the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates.
Patient advocates are springing up to handle everything from finding doctors for hard-to-diagnose diseases to negotiating medical payments with hospitals and doctors and pressing insurance companies to cover claims.
Source:
Patient Advocates Help Navigate Health Care
“The health care bureaucracy is crippling,” said Ms. Newmyer, 62, a retired teacher who lives in Washington, D.C. “There are lots of layers to get to the right person. So you end up paying bills just because you’ve run out of energy.”
In desperation, she turned to a patient advocacy firm, Patient Navigator, which helps coordinate care, do in-depth clinical research and find appropriate doctors. A professional there examined Ms. Newmyer’s bills, checking for errors, and ultimately negotiated lower payments. The amount saved was at least $10,000, Ms. Newmyer said.
As patients like Ms. Newmyer struggle to cope with the dizzying demands of a trillion-dollar health care system that generates most of its revenues from older people, they are increasingly turning to patient advocates for help. The profession, officially seven years old, now has about 650 advocates, including doctors, and is growing rapidly, according to the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates.
Patient advocates are springing up to handle everything from finding doctors for hard-to-diagnose diseases to negotiating medical payments with hospitals and doctors and pressing insurance companies to cover claims.
Source:
Patient Advocates Help Navigate Health Care
