Patient Navigator

Do you have a quick health care, medical, cancer care, chronic disease, caregiving, elder care or administrative or integrative care question you would like answered?  Have you been getting lost in the medical information maze on the Internet?  You don’t have to feel overwhelmed any longer.   Stop searching!

Patient Navigator LLC is pleased to announce a new, free service.  “Ask A Navigator” is designed to let users ask a quick question and get a quick answer.  We have access to experts in many health care fields who have personal experience navigating many illnesses, conditions and aspects of our medical system.

I hope to have this service up on www.patientnavigator.com very soon.

In the meantime, you can ask your question directly here via the comment section on this blog and it will be answered here.  If it’s something that would benefit others, please use this forum.  Or send  your question to:  ask.a.navigator@patientnavigator.com

We look forward to helping you.

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The September 12 New York Times carried a piece by Lesley Alderman titled, “After a Diagnosis, Someone to Help Point the Way.”  http://bit.ly/2SZ0Er

It was very well done, but as usual with these types of stories, does not paint the entire landscape of the emerging profession.  It is unfortunate that the author focused on one advocate who charges $200 an hour for her services.  The extensive reader comments on the “Well” blog following the article help to flesh out the story.

There are many individuals out there trying to help others navigate the health care system.  I started my company, Patient Navigator (www.patientnavigator.com), after struggling through my 2-year old daughter’s journey through brain cancer. I will never forget the moment of diagnosis and being cast into the cancer universe without a lifeline. Her miraculous survival has taken me down this path now, after a 24-year career in government.

Believe me, most of us doing this are doing it from the heart. I talk to anyone for free and often a simple phone conversation can help overcome a major obstacle. I would never dream of charging $200 an hour. This is not something one does for the money. It’s to make sure other families don’t suffer through what we suffered through and to offer help and problem solving so that they can focus more on their recovery.

Navigating a serious illness affects the whole family, finances, jobs, daily life. There is much more that a medical mentor, patient navigator or cancer coach offers than just help with getting appointments.

We individuals are finding each other and have formed a National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants. We are casting a wide net to bring together like-minded people. To learn more, visit http://www.nahac.com.  Our inaugural conference will take place November 13-15 in Berkeley, California.

We have been blessed with our daughter’s survival and I plan to spend the rest of my life thanking God for that through the work I do.

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Author Michael Pollan’s brilliant analysis in the September 10 New York Times correctly argues that  the American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care. 

As he writes, “Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.”   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.”  Pollan points out that we’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet. 

Pollan argues that so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform.   This means the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilites for covering the medical costs of that diet. 

If the President’s insurance reforms become law, so that insurers cannot deny coverage or avoid paying claims, health insurers will discover that they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obseity and chronic diseases linked to diet.  As Pollan writes, “Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future (insurance company) profits.”

When insurers can’t avoid treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement ot reform the food system – everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t ever had before. 

Pollan concludes that passing a health care reform bill, no matter how ambitious, is only the first step in solving our health care crisis. ” To keep from bankrupting ourselves, we will then have to get to work on improving our health – which means going to work on the American way of eating.”

I highly recommend that everyone read this article.  My previous posts have discussed my dismay that no one in the debate is talking about personal responsibility for lifestyle choices.  Pollan’s article makes a big contribution to the conversation.   Taking on agribusiness will be the next big fight, but it’s not a fight that the taxpayers usually win.

Here is the link:  http://tinyurl.com/lr88da

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