Military Officer - June 2007 - (Page 59)

You can’t depend on doctors, nurses, or social workers to have the time to explain all of the intricacies of managing a health challenge. You can buy a membership (available for $300 a year), and then, when you run into a health care issue, it’s there to help you navigate the road back to wellness. Even for those without a membership, advocates with his company also step in after a health crisis has occurred. HealthCare Advocates Inc. has assisted military retirees by helping them access VA beneﬁts and getting coverage for prescriptions that fall within the Medicare “doughnut hole” of prescription drug coverage (once drug costs reach $2,300, beneﬁts lapse until costs meet or exceed $4,000). The NPAF also has helped those with military-related health beneﬁts — through CHAMPUS or TRICARE — obtain coverage for treatments initially denied, says Davenport-Ennis. That can involve going outside a military treatment facility to a civilian facility to see a particular disease or disorder specialist. “We try to get them to a hospital with the appropriate specialist in the same community as the military facility,” Davenport-Ennis says. “This can reduce secondary side effects and secondary hospitalizations.” M A growing trend Meanwhile, Suzanne Steidl, who founded her advocacy company — Your Daughter’s In Town (www.yourdau ghtersintown.com) — offers a unique array of services. She began the company in 2005 speciﬁcally to offer help to retirees and the elderly facing health care issues. Her motivation to start the company stemmed from the problems she witnessed family members and friends encounter while undergoing seemingly routine procedures. Because of the demand for advocacy services, she now serves patients of all age groups by phone, Internet, or in person (if the patient lives in or near southwestern Pennsylvania). Steidl takes a big-picture look at the situation and helps organize caregivers to prevent problems. People often aren’t sure what they should do before or during a hospitalization to prevent errors or hospital-acquired infections, for example. A patient advocate might even be called upon to do simpler, everyday tasks like distribute medication lists to home caregivers. With a background in consumer advocacy and organizing labor, Steidl helps put all of these details into place and encourages patients and caregivers to tap into resources they might not know exist or think apply to their particular situation. “It’s basically common-sense things patients can be doing that nobody tells anybody about,” Steidl says. When is the right time to seek help from an advocate? The earlier the better. Steidl works either by the hour or on a retainer basis for speciﬁc health issues. Flynn’s company offers memberships you can tap into at any given time. With an organization like the NPAF, DavenportEnnis suggests immediately seeking help after you have discovered that you might be getting into illnessrelated trouble. “Often the time [patients] make the phone call is when they begin to get a sense that the prescribed therapy their physician is recommending is not going to be approved by their insurance company,” she says. It’s also a good time to contact a patient advocate when you start getting bills and explanation of beneﬁts forms from your insurance company and health care providers that you don’t understand or think you already have paid. NPAF audits the bills and documents and, at that point, can tell clients how much money they owe. According to Davenport-Ennis, it is not uncommon for retirees to learn they have overpaid. In fact, one woman had become so distraught over the death of her husband she later discovered she’d overpaid for his care by $78,000. “I think advocacy is really a growing trend,” says Steidl. “You can’t depend on doctors, nurses, or social workers to have the time to explain or even know all of the intricacies of managing a health challenge. They know their piece but not necessarily the whole. Patients and their families need organized, trustworthy information to make good decisions, and [they need] the safeguards in place to avoid errors and complications.” MO JUNE 2007 MILITARY OFFICER 59 http://www.yourdaughtersintown.com http://www.yourdaughtersintown.com

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Military Officer - June 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Getting the Best Care Stand By Me Promise for PTSD Cover Story: Heavy Duty Unified Medical Command Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Member Services MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2007

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