Six Ideas You Should Steal From Patient Advocates
Patient advocates have been around for a long time. A patient advocate develops an understanding of what is important to do to make your doctor’s visits the best they can be. At Your Vesa, we do nothing but research how to make the most out of your time with your doctor. In our research, we’ve learned a lot from our patient advocate friends that we’re going to share with you.
Ask Questions
Possibly one of the most important things you can do. Fielding patient questions is something all doctors expect to do, and most want to be answering your questions. Getting answers to your questions from your doctor builds trust between you. When you do this, your doctor will know you are invested in your treatment. And it will help you to feel more at ease with what your options are. Your questions will also help your doctor get to know more about you and could potentially help with future appointments. It could even help uncover things your doctor was unaware of. This can assure you’re receiving the best treatment possible.
Keep a Journal
When going through a medical crisis or suffering from a chronic illness it’s hard to remember everything. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to keep a journal. Not only will this help you remember things, but will also allow you to document how your care is going. This is especially important during hospital stays when post-surgery haze can blur your memory. You should also gain access to your medical records. This allows you to have a file of everything that’s happened in the past leading up to your current situation. Your notes next to your doctor’s notes is a powerful way to stay informed and feel understood.
Know Your Rights
When we’re dealing with a profession that is as complicated as medicine, oftentimes we trust blindly that everyone has our best interests at heart. We believe this is the case in medicine, we also know there are circumstances known and unknown that might cause your best interest to be set aside. You have certain rights as a patient, and it’s important that you know them and how to address them. While here in the US no concrete list has been truly ratified by the government, there is a list of patient rights that the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons chooses to abide by. Some of these rights are the right to a second opinion, the right to confidentiality, the right to refuse treatment, and the right to be informed (in as much detail as you need) about your treatment.
Understand Your Insurance
Health insurance in the United States might be the most complex system many of us deal with daily. Knowing what your insurance options are, seems to need some high-level of expertise. We spoke to someone who was told his copay (as dictated by his insurance)would be $500 for a procedure. When he asked what the uninsured rate would be, he was told $300. He thought this seemed odd, so he logged in and checked his insurance portal while still in the room with the hospital representative. It turned out, his insurance portal said the copay should be $100 and he demanded that the representative call his insurance company to verify.
You should understand your insurance, make sure you have ready access to your benefits, and be comfortable asking things to be checked and verified. When you overpay on a medical bill, it is rarely paid back in anything more than a credit… which no one hopes to ever have to use.
Find Others
Know others around you. This could be as simple as getting to know your roommate or neighbor on a lengthy hospital stay. If you’re a chronic illness sufferer, this means getting to know other people in your local area who are also living with the same, or similar, illness. There’s strength in numbers, even in medicine. Knowing others who go to the same hospitals and clinics as you can be powerful. Also knowing those going through the same illness as you can help you validate situations and facilities.
Just Be Engaged
Simple. Just be a part of your own health journey. If you don’t have a patient advocate, you have to find a way to be your own. Learn how Your Vesa can help make this easier with our unique virtual healthcare advocate.