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A Letter to Health
and Patient Advocates and Navigators
from Trisha Torrey, Founder of
AdvoConnection:
February 2012
I
wanted to share some exciting news with you
– the launch of a new company called
CarePlanners
which
will begin providing personalized advocacy
and care management services to its clients
in some very different ways – and on a very
big scale.
I am working with this
new company in a variety of capacities, so I
want to help you understand not just about
the company itself, but my involvement with
it, too.
CarePlanners offers care
coordination services (called Premium
Services) providing patients and caregivers
with a personal careplanner (advocate) to
help them navigate the healthcare
system—coordination of health & elder care
services, working through issues with
medical bills and insurance, understanding
Medicare, finding healthcare providers,
arranging second opinions, making
appointments, etc.
CarePlanners.com is the online branch of
CarePlanners, launching throughout 2012. It
will also provide online health management
services and then extended services for
those who need help with billing issues,
navigational issues – those services that
private advocates are providing already. The
website, once fully developed, will be a
dashboard that clients can use to stay
organized and in control of their
healthcare. Some of the features offered
will be customized tools such as appointment
reminders, medication trackers and
checklists.
The company was
started by two friends, Alan Blaustein and
Dr. Nancy Snyderman.
Alan is an entrepreneur, involved in
Internet start-ups, who spent several years
battling thymic cancer (have you ever heard
of thymic cancer? very rare) and the
healthcare system. Nancy (whose name you may
recognize from her role as the Chief Medical
Editor at NBC and the Today Show) helped
Alan navigate his care, which really opened
her eyes to the systemic problems with
healthcare in the US. As the two of them
discussed the challenges they faced, they
realized that providing assistance services
to others, if done right, could be huge.
One of our AdvoConnection members,
Crystal Fornes, started working with Alan
and Nancy last Fall, and encouraged Alan to
contact me. Through our discussions, I
realized that they were planning everything
I might have ever dreamed of doing – on a
national or even international scale – the
major difference being that Alan and Nancy
know how to do it, have the resources to do
it – so when you combine the passion with
the wherewithal – it’s an unbeatable
combination.
So I did a little due
diligence – the plans were just so marvelous
I had to pinch myself!… but once in, I was
all-in – and have been working with Alan,
Nancy, Crystal and others since November.
My
role is to provide support and input on the
private advocate piece
– our advocates are
called careplanners – and part of that role
is helping those who are already working as
private advocates understand what
CarePlanners (the company) is about.
Here is what will be most important to you:
Alan and
Nancy have the right team and the financial
resources to help us build awareness in ways
we could not have imagined before they got
involved. And as you well know – the more
awareness, the more mainstream, the more
YOUR phone is going to ring. They have the
ability to shift the conversation from
“What’s a patient advocate?” to “I need to
find a patient advocate.”
And that’s why I
wanted to be a part of the group.
So – now
you understand my role – let me tell you how
this will work with AdvoConnection.
It’s win-win for members…. AdvoConnection
will continue on as it has, supporting the
business sides of your work, and doing
outreach on behalf of members. We’ll
continue to grow our capabilities for doing
that. I am sharing much of what I’ve been
able to develop for members with
CarePlanners – and vice versa.
AdvoConnection’s directory will not change.
CarePlanner’s individual
advocate-careplanners will be listed in the
AC directory, just as every Premium member
is. And, of course, the more people listed
in the directory, the more awareness
spreads, too. Again – win-win-win.
Another
big benefit for some of our members:
CarePlanners will be a work option
for some of you (as independent
contractors) because it will supply
all the business aspects of the work
(insurance, business formation,
marketing, pricing and negotiations,
etc), so advocates / careplanners
can do what they do best – advocate.
If you have interest in possibly
becoming one of CarePlanners’
careplanners as we roll out across
the country, you’ll have access to
updated information that will keep
you posted about when they will be
in your neighborhood.
You’ll
begin hearing much more about
CarePlanners over the next few
months. If you have specific
questions in the meantime, please
let me know and I’ll answer them as
best I can.
Trisha |
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Trisha
Torrey |
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