In the last several years, more and more people have been interested in becoming patient advocates. Like many other jobs in the field, this profession has an incredible outlook, both in terms of salaries and potential advancement.
People doing this job require comprehensive medical but also administrative knowledge. A patient advocate is a Jack of all trades meant to assist patients with all their questions, find them the right doctors, recover money from insurance, and so on.
Who Are Patient Advocates?
Unlike most other professionals working within the field, an independent patient advocate isn’t necessarily a “practical role.” A person doing this job doesn’t perform diagnosis, provide therapy, or operate on patients. Instead, a patient advocate’s main concern is giving their clients proper guidance.
These professionals serve as a bridge between patients and the healthcare system. In other words, they provide various consulting services that make it easier to find the right assistance. A patient advocate (often referred to as a nurse advocate) can help you with different insurance, financial, and legal issues.
As a result, a patient advocate needs to stay in touch with insurers, lawyers, case managers, and doctors on a daily basis. Their main task is to improve healthcare outcomes for the clients while also saving them money in the process.
Although many nurse advocates work as freelancers or part of private businesses, more and more hospitals have started adding these experts to their staff. Although these experts aren’t directly responsible for patients’ well-being, their job can be very arduous nonetheless.
What Do Patient Advocates Do?
The role of patient advocates is always changing. In a nutshell, their main responsibility is to provide users with the best care possible, even if it means communicating with different types of professionals.
A patient advocate will guide a client through the entire recovery process, from the initial diagnosis to treatment, follow-ups, insurance claims, and legal fillings. Although you can hire a patient advocate for just about any ailment, most people hire them when treating chronic and life-threatening conditions.
Here are some of the main things these medical experts do:
- Booking appointments and medical trips.
- Locating the best doctors and second opinions.
- Assisting patients with legal and financial questions.
- Reviewing and negotiating medical bills.
- Helping patients find local communities and support groups.
- Addressing conflicts between doctors and patients.
- Addressing disputes between insurers and patients.
- Communicating patients’ needs and desires with various parties.
- Finding the best treatment, equipment, experts, and care options.
- Explaining different medical procedures.
- Keeping a diary of past visits, past diagnoses, and other relevant documents.
- Making sure that doctors work according to clients’ wishes.
- Protecting clients’ rights.
- Filling out various applications and forms.
- Reading medical documents to patients.
Although these are patient advocates’ main responsibilities, just about anything comes within their purview.
Salary Expectations
Like many other jobs in the US, the salaries for patient advocates vary significantly based on your state. If you check Glassdoor, you’ll notice that an average salary is somewhere between $42 and $57 thousand. Although this salary can’t compare with a doctor’s paycheck, it’s still a solid compensation.
The good news is that this profession will keep on rising in the upcoming years. This makes sense, given that advocacy is relatively new, and there’s a lot of room for growth. The increase in demand will also be spearheaded by an increasingly older population.
Where Do Nurse Advocates Work?
Nurse advocates can do their job in all sorts of medical environments. Many of these professionals work in large hospitals and clinics as a part of the regular staff. Some of them also offer their services online and through specialized companies.
These are the main organizations and environments where you can find these medical experts:
- Nursing homes: A lot of nursing homes require patient advocates. Given that a lot of elderly suffer from chronic conditions, advocates can help them with all sorts of questions and administrative tasks.
- Hospitals: It has become customary for large hospitals and clinics to have a patient advocate on their staff. These experts can assist all users during their visit and, later on, after the discharge.
- Nonprofits: Certain organizations offer nurse advocate assistance to their community members. Many of these patient advocates work as volunteers, assisting people who don’t have enough money for this type of service.
- Insurance companies: A lot of nurse advocacy revolves around relationships between patients and insurers. So, it makes sense that some of these businesses would provide advocates as a way of solving their clients’ issues.
- Government agencies: Similar to nonprofits, specific agencies hire advocates on a city, state, or federal level. The best example of this is Medicare and Medicaid.
- Independent businesses: There are more and more freelancers in this professional niche. Most of these experts have enormous experience within the medical and administrative field. While they might charge you for their services, they will provide top-tier assistance.
Required Skills for Patient Advocates
As mentioned, becoming a patient advocate is much harder than some people think. Professionals working in this field require extensive multidisciplinary knowledge and fantastic interpersonal skills. Communication is key in this particular case, as it would allow a professional to deal with different parties.
Besides communication skills, here are a few other requirements to become good at this job:
- Patient advocates must have great problem-solving skills so they can tackle complex cases that involve numerous stakeholders.
- Empathy is vital for this position as it ensures that a patient advocate works extra hard to help a client. Furthermore, empathy improves overall client satisfaction.
- With elite organizational skills, you’re able to manage several patients at the same time. It allows a medical expert to judge appointments, diagnoses, drugs, and various documents.
Conclusion
If you’re a young person looking for a prospective job, you should definitely take into account nurse advocacy. Although becoming one of these experts takes time and interdisciplinary knowledge, it certainly pays off. Not only is there a high demand for nurse advocates, but also the paychecks are relatively solid.