• We are pleased to announce the sale of our Workshop CD on the HCL website.  If you haven’t yet taken the workshop “Becoming a Healthcare Advocate:  11 Steps to a New Career in Healthcare” or if you would like to listen to the updated version, it’s for sale on our web site at:  http://www.healthcareliaison.com/store.html.  While it sells for $199 on the web site, if you call us to order at 510-704-8476, you can purchase it via credit card for $125 until August 15, 2011
• We have a book coming out (well, a chapter in a book!).  The book is entitled “Health—Mind, Body, Soul” and is a collection of information on different aspects of health.  Joanna was pleased to write the chapter on Healthcare Advocacy.  It will be for sale on our web site in August, also in the Web Site store at the above address.

Our credentialing classes for the fall are filling up and we have five spaces left.  Have you been considering signing up?  Now is the time!!  We are offering a “Summer Special”:  discounted pricing on our two versions of the Credentialing Program.  The 9 month program for people wanting to be credentialed in healthcare advocacy is normally $3,500; until August 15^th we will be offering it for $3,000.

Our twelve month program, for people who want to be credentialed but also want assistance with actually setting up a business, is ordinarily $4,100.  Until August 15^th, we are offering it for $3,600.

• We are introducing a program for non-medically trained people who would like to be certified in healthcare advocacy.  Acceptance is based on qualifications and experience; interested people can submit a resume and arrange for an interview.  Please contact us for more information:  510-704-8476.

To take advantage of these program savings, you must send in a resume, be accepted into the program and complete your deposit to hold a place in the class, by August 15^th.  The first session will be on Sunday, September 11th  (exact time to be decided on by participants).

As an added bonus, if you sign up by August 15^th, we’ll add in a free copy of the updated workshop “Becoming a Healthcare Advocate”.

Our first session is already filled, but we will begin other sessions on a monthly basis.  Are you interested?  Please call or email for a program description:  510-704-8476; joanna@healthcareliaison.com.

This day will offer insights into the more difficult aspects of an Advocate’s world:  complex discharge planning situations, intricacies of Healthcare Reform, the labyrinth of health insurance and appeals.  The goal is to enhance the skill base that medical professionals have in healthcare advocacy.  Come join us at a beautiful location and grow your skills!  Registration online at www.healthcareliaison.com/workshops.html.

What is it about the world of healthcare, where someone leaving the hospital is “a discharge” and we talk about surgeries as a Whipple Procedures or a CABG (pronounced “Cabbage”)–and we use that language with the patients and clients we work with.  How easily that language slips out!  What I am realizing is that the world of healthcare is a foreign language–just as the worlds of insurance or accounting or law are separate languages.  And people entering the universe of healthcare, under stress, without knowing the language or having an interpreter to guide them–end up under even more stress.  We end up sounding like an exclusive club–and that’s not good healthcare delivery.

So what can we do?  Drop the medical language when talking with patients and clients.  Draw pictures instead; talk about risks and benefits to whatever is being considered; don’t be rushed in explanations; involve the individual and their family in a discussion that is exactly at their level of understanding.  It’s up to healthcare professionals  to figure out and match that level.  So the focus is on us speaking our client’s/patient’s language, not the other way around.

IRVINE, CA  April 16, 2011:

Healthcare Liaison, Inc.

Presents

Enhancing your Skills as a Healthcare Advocate:

A Seminar for Professionals

Become an even greater resource for your patients!

April 16, 2011

The Beckman Center   100 Academy Way  Irvine, CA

8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Come develop new skills in a relaxing environment

$195, includes lunch, parking and 6 CEs

Attending with a friend? Ask about our referral bonus!

Interested in attending with a group?  Ask about group pricing rates!

Topics Include:

“You Have to go Today”: Dilemmas in Discharge Planning

When is Care Futile?  Helping Families Understand Care Options

Getting Beyond the Insurer’s “No”—Insurance basics for everyone

For brochure and registration:  www.healthcareliaison.com/workshops

6 CEs available for nurses through Wild Iris Medical Education*

*Wild Iris Medical Education, Inc. is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Boston, MA, May 14th & 15th

Becoming A Healthcare Advocate:  11 Steps to a New Career in Healthcare

The definitive workshop for those considering the field of Healthcare Advocacy, either as a private practice or to enhance their skills working in healthcare settings.

More than 200 participants have already completed the two-day workshop: you can read the brochure and register at www.healthcareliaison.com/workshops.html

11 CEs for nurses in all 50 states.

Can’t Attend the Workshop But Want to Hear It?

Coming soon to our web site:  the two-day workshop CD and slides!  $199 includes all MP3 audio files and a PDF of the slides.  Email us to purchase:  joanna@healthcareliaison.com

And healthcare is a prime example.

If you cut your finger, that is a puzzle:  we know, if it’s a minor cut, it needs…washing, perhaps an antibiotic ointment, maybe a band aid.  If it’s major, it may require stitches.  But if you are diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome or an irregularity of your heart beat, that is something different.  There are no pat answers:  you need to do a lot more investigation and thought, along with your healthcare team, to figure out the best treatment options.  This is a time when healthcare advocates can be of so much help to people.  It’s the mysteries we can help most with, by showing people how to problem-solve, interpret the information they’re receiving and make a decision.

These topics are some of what is included in the curriculum of Healthcare Liaison’s “Becoming a Private Healthcare Advocate”  workshops.  The next one will be at UC/Berkeley on February 27th and 28th.  You can look at the course description at www.healthcareliaison.com/workshops.

Healthcare Liaison is expanding the 2010 locations for for its popular two-day workshop “Becoming a Healthcare Advocate:  11 Steps to a New Career in Healthcare”.  These workshops are open to consumers, professional healthcare advocates, those teaching in the field and policy and legislative interests.  We have new locations!

SEATTLE, WA–January 30 and 31st

BERKELEY, CA–February 27th and 28th

TUCSON, AZ–March 20th and 21st

BOSTON, MA–May 1st and 2nd

The links will take you to the brochure describing the workshop and you can complete payment on-line with a credit card or PayPal.  There are still spaces in the Seattle workshop and registrants are eligible for a referral bonus when they “bring a friend”.

In other major news, we have a professional organization!  I founded the organization, the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants,  in July 2009 and am now the President of NAHAC for 209-2010.  You can read about the Association and join at NAHAC

In November 2009 the newly-formed National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants held its First Annual Conference!  NAHAC  currently has 62 members and membership is open to everyone:  professional advocates, consumers, academicians and policy and legislative participants. Members who were not able to attend the conference can listen to the podcast on the web site and hear workshops on case studies, HIPAA for advocates, insurance-made-understandable and more.  to join:  NAHAC.

We are holding our second annual Conference in Washington DC in November 2010.  Join NAHAC to get the details as soon as they’re released!

Healthcare Liaison is presenting a workshop for healthcare professionals who would like to be trained in private healthcare advocacy and for consumers who need health care guidance.

The Beautiful Clark Kerr Campus of UC Berkeley

Google Map for Clark Kerr Campus

October 17th & 18th, 2009
Clark Kerr Campus
Berkeley, CA

Workshop Daily Schedule
8:30 a.m. check in and coffee
9:00 a.m. workshop begins
noon-1 p.m. lunch (on your own)
4:30 p.m. workshop ends

For detailed brochure and to register on-line, please go to www.healthcareliaison.com/workshops

The Beautiful Clark Kerr Campus of UC Berkeley

Becoming a Private Healthcare Advocate
11 Steps to a New Career in Healthcare

May 2nd & 3rd, 2009
Clark Kerr Campus
Berkeley, CA

Workshop Daily Schedule
8:30 a.m. check in and coffee
9:00 a.m. workshop begins
noon-1 p.m. lunch (on your own)
4:30 p.m. workshop ends

Google Map for Clark Kerr Campus

Workshop Brochure (752K PDF)