Quit Wasting My Healthcare

Medical Advocacy Business is Booming

This past Sunday in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mike Stobbe wrote an article, “Booming business helps patients navigate medicine” about companies such as Compass who are helping guide patients through the healthcare process (http://www.ajc.com/search/content/business/stories/2008/07/27/advocate.html).  The article focuses primarily on a company called Health Advocate who for a few dollars per month makes available medical advocates over the phone to help patients address billing issues and other related issues when they come up.  This type of service is contrasted against a service such as PinnacleCare who charges individuals $10,000 per year for dedicated healthcare support.  While both of these companies have shown the power of having a guide through the healthcare process, they have failed to truly bring hard value to patients and employers beyond the satisfaction that comes from having an expert support you.  It is the main reason why the medical advocacy is business is booming, but not yet mainstream.

Hard value is where Compass differentiates itself from the traditional medical advocacy service market.  In order to deliver medical cost savings in addition to benefit satisfaction, a service must educate individuals on how to become better healthcare consumers, drive physician behavior change through patient accountability, provide patients the cost and quality data necessary to make value based healthcare decisions, and then walk those individuals through the healthcare process step-by-step.   To be effective, proactive engagement prior to the advent of the medical condition is also required.  Through its powerful pricing data and proactive support solutions, Compass is moving the medical advocacy business from the feel good solutions of yesterday to the fundamental methodology of tomorrow for healthcare cost containment and service.  At that point, medical advocacy will no longer be booming, it will be the standard.