This post has been shared by the APHA Mentor’s Blog. It was written to help you start and grow an advocacy practice.
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Patient Advocacy Skill Set Checklist: The Ability to Negotiate
This post was contributed by Lisa Berry Blackstock, Soul Sherpa® a mentor for those who are building an advocacy practice. A patient advocate who isn’t afraid to negotiate on behalf of a client is likely to be an advocate in demand. Everywhere an advocate turns, opportunities to negotiate are plentiful: Inflated medical bills, premature hospital discharges, discontinuation of physical therapy sessions, procedures deemed medically unnecessary by insurance companies – yet desired by a specialty physician. The list is endless and will likely grow as healthcare benefits continue to narrow for subscribers nationwide. Negotiation doesn’t have to mean arguing, arm twisting, or threatening. Those tactics are bound to result in worsening your client’s situation. Negotiation can mean knowing what rights your client has, the ability to identify and document when those rights are and aren’t being respected, and the follow-through to professionally, politely, yet firmly place a healthcare provider or insurer on notice that the treatment your client may be experiencing may not be acceptable. Documenting a client’s patient rights and citing how those rights are being accidentally overlooked (or deliberately ignored) can be an effective way to begin knowing where an advocate can begin negotiating on a client’s behalf. This…