What is a Patient Advocate?

Essential Job Description

The job of a Patient Advocate is to guide a patient through their healthcare needs as seamlessly and pleasantly as possible. There is no comprehensive bullet list of duties to fully encompass advocating for a patient. At Amaze, we go above and beyond to help patients navigate the MAZE of healthcare. We act as their liaison to insurance companies, specialists, primary care providers, pharmacies, imaging centers, HR, and more. We may not always know the answer, but we will ALWAYS do our very best to give them the most accurate and helpful information possible. We will go the extra mile when no one else will, and treat every patient like our most important patient. In fact, we strive to help everyone who calls our number, whether they’re a patient or not. We’re here to change healthcare 🙂

Part of our company belief system is that we’re ALL patient advocates. Whether we’re in sales, operations, or development, we’re all working towards the same goal.

The Practical Details

The day-to-day job of a Patient Advocate involves a wide range of duties, some may seem minor, but all are important

1. Answering and transferring calls
2. Assisting in app/account questions
3. Communicating effectively with providers to understand patient needs and with what urgency
4. Communicating with patients’ insurance companies to understand benefits, fighting for authorization of necessary meds/procedures/labs/imaging, and communicating insurance information to the patient at their level of understanding.
5. Initiating referrals – verifying appropriate ICD-10 codes and office notes for services requested, confidently navigating patients’ insurance to find best price, directing patients to self-pay when appropriate, finding vetted institutions (specialists, lab facilities, imaging centers, etc.) with quickest appointment times, helping confirm appointment, following up after appointment, and passing patients back to medical team for additional follow-up
6. Monitoring Inbound Patient Communications group on the Daily Management board, tagging providers when needed, communicating every step of the way
7. Auditing and moving along tasks in order of importance within the Patient Advocate view of the Task Management board
8. Auditing provider tasks to make sure none are falling through cracks