Patient Advocacy
Is your health care provider Board Certified by a Board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties?
Are you familiar with your Patient Bill of Rights?
Patient Bill of Rights in Florida
What is your Protected Health Information?
http://www.hipaa.com/2009/09/hipaa-protected-health-information-what-does-phi-include/
What is Patient Advocate Day?
http://www.npaf.org/images/pdf/proclamations/2008floridaproclamation.pdf
To check the codes reported by your physician the public can access the lookup function on the
American Medical Association website.
Patients can also find a lot more advice on how to handle insurance claims and health-care costs at the website for the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation. (http://patientadvocate.org/resources.php?p=771) There you'll find a guide to managed care, details on how to file an appeal – including sample letters – advice on how to talk to your doctor about costs, billing, and more.