Health Advocate Tasks
The tasks of different health advocates generally fall into three categories depending on the advocates' responsibilities. Patient advocates can offer a range of different services.
Patient Care
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Providing direct, customized assistance in navigating healthcare (during current visits, post-visits, recurring visits, future visits).
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Speaking up for patients' rights, communicating with healthcare providers.
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Protecting patients, ensuring their needs are met.
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Educating patients to make well-informed decisions.
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Clarifying diagnoses and conditions.
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Supporting patients with navigation of home care, transportation, meals, housing, assisted living and rehab centers.
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Supporting patients with getting admitted or discharged from hospital.
Administration
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Making referrals
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Supporting patients with medical bill navigation & reviewing accuracy
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Negotiating bills with providers, getting billing errors corrected
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Guiding patients through their administrative and legal tasks.
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Coordinating care specialists & attending appointments.
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Identifying and sharing supportive health resources
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Supporting patients with disability filings.
Insurance
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Expressing patient's medicare/veteran/medicaid benefits.
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Helping patients with health insurance & advising them on selection of plans based on policies, researching and informing patient of benefits (ie. long term care insurance, preventative care, telehealth features)
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Inquiring about other in and out of network provider options available to the patient.
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Guiding patients through their insurance questions.
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Offering clarity about out of pocket and deductible expenses.
Patients' Rights
Being heard by healthcare providers is a basic right for all patients. Patients and advocates can best advocate for their healthcare when their rights are well known. This allows physicians to respect their patients while upholding expectations of their rights during treatment.
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To courtesy, respect, dignity, and timely, responsive attention to his or her needs.
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To receive information from their physicians and to have opportunity to discuss the benefits, risks, and costs of appropriate treatment alternatives, including the risks, benefits and costs of forgoing treatment. Patients should be able to expect that their physicians will provide guidance about what they consider the optimal course of action for the patient based on the physician’s objective professional judgment.
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To ask questions about their health status or recommended treatment when they do not fully understand what has been described and to have their questions answered.
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To make decisions about the care the physician recommends and to have those decisions respected. A patient who has decision-making capacity may accept or refuse any recommended medical intervention.
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To have the physician and other staff respect the patient’s privacy and confidentiality.
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To obtain copies or summaries of their medical records.
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To obtain a second opinion.
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To be advised of any conflicts of interest their physician may have in respect to their care.
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To continuity of care. Patients should be able to expect that their physician will cooperate in coordinating medically indicated care with other health care professionals, and that the physician will not discontinue treating them when further treatment is medically indicated without giving them sufficient notice and reasonable assistance in making alternative arrangements for care.