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Immediate Advocacy We are the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, working to improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries. Our site offers beneficiary and family-centered care information for providers, patients, and families. Welcome! |
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speak with kepro about immediate advocacy
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what is immediate advocacy?
Through the Immediate Advocacy process, Kepro serves as an advocate for those people who have Medicare to access needed health care.
Read a story about how Immediate Advocacy can help when you can't get needed answers from your doctor's office. This story is also available as a video: Getting Help With a Prescription Refill.
This is Polly, and she is on Medicare.
Polly lives alone and has no family around to help with daily tasks that may be too hard for her to do on her own. She does not have much support in her neighborhood because the neighbors she knew moved, and she does not know many of the new ones. Sadly, her eyes have been giving her trouble, so when her driver’s license expired, she was not able to renew it. While she is in the process of getting that fixed, as of right now, transportation is hard for her.
With all these problems going on, it is important to note that Polly is on oxygen. However, she was having trouble getting the prescription for her oxygen refilled. She thought it had been taken care of previously. However, she found out that it was not, and the order would expire the next month.
Polly tried to call her doctor’s office to fix the situation. While this should have solved the problem, after leaving three messages, she did not receive a response. Polly was concerned that she would not be able to get in touch with the doctor before she needed the oxygen.
Polly reached out to Kepro and shared her concerns. The Kepro representative quickly recommended our Immediate Advocacy service to her. Immediate Advocacy, or IA, is an opportunity for Medicare beneficiaries to receive help when they have a problem regarding medical care or services. This service if completely free for those with Medicare. In order to get a problem quickly resolved, Kepro can reach out to the health care provider or facility on behalf of the beneficiary.
After discussing her situation, the Kepro representative immediately set to work to help improve Polly’s situation. A primary concern was making sure that Polly was able to get groceries. The representative was pleased when Polly said that they were currently being delivered.
When Polly explained that she had no current means of transportation, the Kepro representative provided her the number for a senior services department for her state as well as 2-1-1. This meant that Polly would be able to access community resources that could help her in this area.
Regarding the lack of communication with Polly’s doctor, the Kepro representative offered to move forward with a three-way phone call or a courtesy call to the doctor’s office to ask about the oxygen. When Polly stated that she would prefer the courtesy call, the Kepro representative contacted the doctor’s office and left a detailed message.
When the doctor’s office did not respond, the Kepro representative left another detailed message and asked that the call be returned in a timely manner. Thankfully, a call was then received from an individual at the doctor’s office.
The office staff member stated that there was a note in the medical record that Polly needed to contact her pulmonologist for the oxygen order. However, the Kepro representative clarified that Polly said she was not seeing a pulmonologist.
After putting the Kepro representative on hold, a discussion took place between the doctor and the office staff member. The doctor told the staff member to schedule an appointment with Polly. Also, he stated that he would do a temporary refill of her oxygen. The office staff member was instructed by the doctor to help Polly get an appointment with a pulmonologist. The Kepro representative then telephoned Polly to give her the good news that her oxygen would be refilled.
If you are on Medicare and are not happy with the care you received or if you need help working through an issue that needs to be taken care of right away, please call Kepro and ask about Immediate Advocacy.
Read more about Immediate Advocacy.
