Unfortunately, many of the existing medical portals falls short to provide a coordinated effort for care.
The responsibility continues to fall on the patient for advocacy, follow-up, and review especially since there has been little to no enforcement of the 21st Century Cures Act since it’s inception.
When a patient is dealing with a life threatening disease, such as cancer, you can imagine how daunting coordinating and navigating care can be, and wouldn’t it be nice to have all care team members, including your pharmacy and billing department working from one platform?
We believe this to be the case. We know this to be the case. We know this because we are pulling from recent experience as part of a caretaking team of a terminal cancer patient attempting to live a longer and better life while jumping through the hurdles of care chaos.
We are implementing a pilot program with a group of newly diagnosed cancer patients to participate in this portal test.
We will work with you to upload your documents, scans, tests etc. and assign you a portal advocate to assist with the navigation of your care.
We ask that you also ask your physician(s) to participate in the coordination and navigation of your care through our portal with our assistance.
Many portals are patient information driven, meaning for you to coordinate your records. You still manage it and will need to be the advocate for non participating physicians to access records in portals that do not align or feed into theirs.
After speaking with many physicians, the main issue is all of the portals, and not just one that would coordinate care amongst multiple physicians with multiple specialties but all caring for the same patient.
Our portal allows for just what the doctors have asked for, and more! All participating physicians in ones care have the opportunity to read all reports, notes, test results and will have the ability to leave notes for one another.
A patient and their multiple physicians have the ability to search and download reports from the entire portal as it pertains to their patient and specific terms of interest.
This portal also allows access to a patient and their caretaking team to coordinate care; ask questions visible to all team members; verify prescriptions – dosages – and discuss side affects/reactions; access scan and lab test results and see notes as warranted by the medical team; access itemized bills upon request and availability from participating billing departments with the capability to schedule payments; access and review working calendar to ensure that each team member is aware of upcoming appointments, ensure scans/tests are done with results in the que prior to appointments and that follow-up is done efficiently and effectively.
The majority of Independent Patient Advocates have experienced frustration with the health care system and decided to do something about it. They either witnessed systemic failures while working on the inside or had a personal experience that prompted them to help others. As the profession matures, so will the training. Independent Patient Advocates have undertaken coursework, mentoring, and continuing education.
An increasing number of advocates have been tested and certified by the Patient Advocate Certification Board. Independent Patient Advocates collaborate with each other all the time, so even if a particular advocate can’t help, they can probably direct you to someone who can.
No, they aren’t. And they shouldn’t be. It would be a conflict of interest for a patient advocate to be independent while employed by a health insurance company. This is true because Independent Patient Advocates are often called upon to fight, challenge, and appeal insurance company decisions. Because health insurance cannot effectively or ethically provide independent advocacy for patients, we are constantly seeking donors to assist our efforts to assist patients financially.
IAC, Inc. is in here to provide at times lifesaving benefits of Independent Patient Advocacy to our local community. We are a local 501(3)(c) who provides these services to cancer patients fee free.
By donating to our mission you will be helping us to afford to finalize the build on our medical portal that will be providing a multi-faceted approach to the coordination and navigation of cancer care.
Our mission is to assist cancer patients to live longer and better lives.
Please also share our site and our mission with all your friends, associates, and connections. If you can, please make a tax deductible contribution to IAC, Inc. to help our efforts further, we graciously welcome your donations.
Islands Against Cancer, Inc. is a 501 (3)(C) nonprofit organization in South Carolina. Your donation will be used to ensure that local cancer patients receive advocate care at our maximum, level fee free.
Our care includes care coordinators, nurse and pharmaceutical oversight, financial coordination and management assistance, accompanying and assisted care, home visits, and more.
Yes! We welcome monthly donations so that we can more easily and effectively schedule our team members to our patient families without delay.
Yes! We have ongoing sponsorships available. We do fundraising events throughout the year and there are always opportunities to sponsor per event. We also offer sponsorships to cover our ongoing operation costs, such as our website, patient portal, transportation for patients and home visit expenses. Contact us today to inquire how you might be a day to day sponsor.
We are always seeking skilled advocates, nurses, and pharmaceutical team members.
