Growing Need For Health Advocates

category: Dafé’s Café - Daily Dose of Medical News,MyDocHub
by Dafé,

Like many people out there, looking for the right doctor for our condition, haggling with insurance companies and the like can be very frustrating. Now, the growing need for health advocates is filling the void that most family doctors basically don’t have the time or incentive to do.

One of the largest companies in the booming health advocacy business is Health Advocates, with roughly 2.6 million employees, or members, signed with its service staffed with registered nurses and health advocates. Another is $10,000-a-year PinnacleCare, mostly used by millionaires and billionaires.

Jessica Greene, a University of Oregon health policy analyst, said: “We’re asking consumers to make more complicated decisions, but the numeracy and health literacy skills of many consumers are not at the level needed to handle this new responsibility.”