Questions about rates and charges are clearly a driver when you hire someone. The issue with providing a flat rate is that it’s just not feasible to have a flat rate. Imagine if every physician made the same amount of money no matter their specialty, location or their experience?
People with specialties, in general, have more experience and give more value than someone that is a generalist. Would you go to a family physician to have open heart surgery? I hope your answer is NO. It’s the same with Patient Advocates. If you have run out of traditionally available medication options, you may be looking for the possibility of orphan drugs. You will want to hire a specialist for this. If you ran out of treatment options, then you might want to get a clinical trial specialist.
Specialities are not the only influence in the cost, your location has something to do with it. Just like all other occupations, location matters. Expect the salary of a patient advocate to be higher in more expensive cities and lower in more rural areas.
So now we have specialty, location what else can be a factor? Experience is also a factor in the pricing of services. The more experienced your advocate, typically, means the more expensive they will be.
TYPES OF ADVOCATES
- Generalist
- End of Life Planning
- Pediatric
- Maternity
- Disease Specialist (Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancers etc)
- Orphan Drugs
- Clinical Trials
- Medical Billing
Evaluate the Value Before Making a Decision
What is the value of your health? What is the value of your peace of mind? What value would you place on knowing you are doing and getting everything you need to be healthy? You can think of a Patient Advocate as the preventative portion of your Life Insurance Policy. It’s something you need to research and hire according to the level you want to protect you and your family.
Looking at the Numbers
Alright now we talked about the drivers in the charges of patient advocates but what are the real numbers. Your end of life planners and generalist will start at rates from $50 up to $250 an hour. The wide range of this pay scale is again, according to location and experience.
Your pediatric, maternity and disease specific patient advocates will start at a higher rate. A typical rate for these practitioners is $75 to $300.
Advocates that have the skillset to get you into clinical trials and have access to orphan drugs can garner wages as high $500 an hour.
Many medical billing advocates typically forgo the typical hourly rate and only charge you based upon the amount of the bill savings.
Fear not, if these hourly rates feel like, in your situation to be cost prohibitive. Hourly rates are not the only form of payment for many patient advocates.
There is a growing trend for memberships or bundled packages. If you have a chronic illness or acute situation that will require many hours of service, you may want to ask about these options.
Monthly memberships can be found in 3, 6 and 1 year terms. These memberships are great for generally health people as well as chronically ill. Memberships afford the client the ability to receive discounted services and guaranteed support in line with your membership contract.An example of a 1 year term membership for a “Healthy Senior“, could include:
- accompany Senior up to 3 physician visits per year
- monthly call to review state of health and make recommendations accordingly
- in-home safety review with professional report and recommendations
- review all medications and check for interactions and note any potential side effects
An example of a bundled package for a hospitalized acutely ill person, could include:
- 24/7 in-hospital stay with monitoring, overnight included, each day hospitalized up to 4 nights
- review of care plan
- medication review
- accompany in transportation home
- review of home environment and medical setup as necessary
- accompany Senior up to 3 physician visits per year
- monthly call to review state of health and make recommendations accordingly
- in-home safety review with professional report and recommendations
- review all medications and check for interactions and note any potential side effects
As you can see when you are hiring a patient advocate, there are many things to consider. The power is in your hands.
Some really prime blog posts on this site, saved to my bookmarks . Phebe Parrnell Bodkin