List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Nov. 1, 2011 (NOV-DEC issue)
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Patient advocates can help you navigate the medical maze of treatment decisions, health-care billing and insurance coverage – and help you fight for your rights. The Patient Advocate Foundation is a nonprofit that helps patients nationwide when claims are rejected (sometimes they’re simply miscoded) toward satisfactory resolution. Patient advocates also help patients settle debts, make informed medical treatment choices, find better care and keep their jobs while they’re sick. Nurse navigators are a subspecialty – nurses who can help with making medical decisions. Some advocates specialize in resolving billing disputes. Realizing that these advocates can help save time and money in the long run, some hospitals have their own patient advocates and some states offer patient assistance programs.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Patient Advocate Foundation web site; Standardized patient satisfaction survey; RN Patient Advocates website; HealthCare Advocates website; Healthassist website; First Measure Patient Advocates; AdvoConnection website
Explain types of human sources used.
A 34-year-old breast cancer survivor who got a surprise $8,000 bill from her hospital; director of customer service at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY; Founder of RN Patient Advocates; Patient Advocate Foundation communications representative
Results:
None
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
“The most challenging part of reporting this story, as it is with many health stories, was having the discipline to leave out what not to use. For example, for this article, I spoke with several academics about patient advocacy as a trend among college course selections. Another example is I researched a number of patient-advocacy case stories. While the research gave me a deeper understanding of my subject matter, there wasn’t room in the story to delve into academia and a wide range of examples without compromising the most important goals of the article: to educate readers about what a patient advocate can do for them and their families. Learning when to use the editing pen (or delete key) is a skill all of us journalists need, especially in our media-saturated world with so much information to read.”