Choosing a Patient Advocate: How Different Advocacy Options Really Work

When healthcare gets hard to handle alone, people look for help wherever they can find it, including patient advocates. Some lean on family. Others turn to low-cost options like non-profit counselors or facility-based advisors. Many end up managing everything themselves, because no single option is designed to stay with them or handle care coordination across different parts of the healthcare system.

Some of these options can work in limited situations. But they often break down, especially once care becomes complex or involves chronic conditions. This leads to long delays, fragmented care, and poor healthcare results.

Solace Works Differently

Solace pairs patients with dedicated patient advocates—experienced professionals with an average of more than 16 years in healthcare. Advocates find doctors, keep providers coordinated, handle insurance issues, and keep helping for as long as they’re needed.

Solace is covered by Medicare. Most patients pay nothing or only a small amount per month.

Common Alternatives to Solace Patient Advocates

There’s no shortage of attempts to address the healthcare system’s failures. In certain situations, some of these resources can be genuinely helpful, whether that’s a facility-based advisor offering guidance or a family member stepping in as caregiver.

Read on to learn the most common approaches patients rely on, where those approaches tend to hold up, and where they tend to break down.

Going It Alone

Managing your own healthcare can feel empowering at first. Finding doctors, booking appointments, and making treatment decisions can provide a sense of control, especially when issues are simple or short-lived.

But going it alone is often the hardest and least effective option. It can take a major emotional and financial toll, and often leads to delayed care and worse healthcare outcomes.

The upsides:

• Direct control: Decisions are based on your own preferences.
• No added fees: You avoid paying for formal help or services.
• Personal familiarity: You know your history, symptoms, and concerns better than anyone.
• Flexible timing: Tasks happen on your schedule, without coordinating with others.

The Downsides:

• Time-consuming: Managing appointments, follow-ups, and insurance can feel like a job
• Complicated: Insurance rules and doctors’ instructions are hard to grasp without expert guidance.
• Costly mistakes: Delayed approvals, missed referrals, and poorly coordinated treatment decisions can raise costs and disrupt care.
• Emotionally draining: Carrying everything alone adds strain at the exact moment patients need to focus on healing.

The Trade-Off

Handling everything alone can offer a sense of control, but it also puts the full weight of coordination, follow-through, and decision-making on the patient. Over time, that burden leads to delayed care, higher costs, and avoidable setbacks.

With Solace, that responsibility shifts. Your advocate takes ownership of scheduling, insurance issues, and provider coordination, then stays with you until your problems are resolved and your care is on track.

Loved Ones

Loved ones are often the first to help with healthcare—making phone calls, offering rides, and sometimes much more. But even family members have their breaking points.

Their support comes from a place of love, but they usually have jobs, families, and responsibilities of their own. They may live far away. And most don’t have the time or expertise to manage complex care, insurance issues, or long-running coordination problems. Over time, that strain can lead to burnout and gaps in care.

The upsides:

• Personalized care: Loved ones know your history, preferences, and day-to-day realities.
• Emotional presence: Family support can feel comforting when life gets stressful.
• No direct cost: Help from family doesn’t come with service fees.
• Immediate help: Loved ones can often step in quickly when something urgent comes up.

The downsides:

• Competing demands: Balancing care with jobs, families, and other responsibilities can lead to burnout.
• Relationship strain: The pressure of caregiving can create tension or role confusion within families.
• Lack of expertise: Without clinical or advocacy experience, they may overlook important steps or options.
• Limited availability: Loved ones might not always live nearby or be able to stay involved in every decision or appointment.

The Trade-Off

While close friends and family can provide well-meaning help, they’re usually not trained to manage complex care or long-running coordination. And their help often comes at the cost of their time and responsibilities, straining their lives and their relationship with the patient.

Solace advocates take the pressure off of families. They coordinate care, handle insurance, and keep loved ones in the loop with regular updates. They can even work with caregivers directly. Solace helps families focus on connection and companionship, not the stress of healthcare.

Medicare Support Programs and Non-Profit Counselors

These are often the first formal support patients encounter when they need help understanding benefits, resolving billing questions, or accessing local services. Programs like the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) offer free counseling on Medicare coverage, while nonprofit counselors may assist with billing disputes, resource referrals, or care-related questions.

These resources can be useful when a patient has a clearly defined, isolated problem. They’re accessible and often low or no cost. But because these programs tend to focus on narrow domains and operate under heavy demand, wait times can be long, and support often ends once the immediate issue is resolved.

The upsides:

• Low or no cost: Most of these programs charge little to nothing.
• Issue-specific help: Counselors and advocates focus on defined problems like Medicare coverage or billing disputes.
• Local connections: Programs can point patients to nearby services and community resources.
• State-level knowledge: Support reflects local rules, benefits, and regulations.

The downsides:

• Narrow scope: Support is usually limited to a single issue or domain of care.
• Long wait times: Demand often means delays lasting weeks or months.
• Short-term involvement: Help usually ends once the immediate task is completed.
• Disconnected support: Help isn’t integrated with the rest of a patient’s care.

The Trade-Off

From denied claims to confusing billing statements, an advocate's expertise can save a LOT of time, stress, and money. With healthcare costs rising and insurance becoming increasingly complicated, having someone who understands the system can make a significant financial difference.

Facility-Based Patient Advocates

Many hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes employ patient advocates to assist with tasks like discharge planning, prior authorization, or connecting patients with in-network providers. These advocates know their organization’s policies and processes well, and they can make certain steps easier during a stay. Their support is usually available at no additional cost.

But their role is limited to the facility itself. Hospital patient advocates, for example, focus on issues tied to that setting, and their involvement usually ends at discharge. Once care moves outside the facility, follow-up coordination, insurance questions, and next steps are once again the patient’s responsibility.

The upsides:

• No added cost: Help is often included as part of a hospital or facility stay.
• Facility-specific knowledge: Advocates understand their organization’s policies and requirements.
• On-site availability: Help is available during the stay, as questions come up in real time.
• Precise focus: Suited to immediate needs like discharge planning or prior authorization.

The downsides:

• Limited scope: Help is tied to a single facility or episode of care.
• Conflicting interests: Advocacy is constrained by the facility’s priorities, policies, and processes.
• Temporary support: Assistance typically ends at discharge.
• Gaps after discharge: Follow-up coordination and next steps may fall outside their role.

The Trade-Off

Facility-based advocates can help resolve immediate, setting-specific concerns, but their role is limited to that facility and that instance of care. After discharge, their role typically ends.

Solace advocates aren’t limited to a single facility or moment in care, and they stay involved through transitions and delays. Solace advocates answer to the patient rather than the priorities of a care facility.

Insurance-Provided Case Managers

Insurance companies may assign case managers to patients with chronic conditions, high-cost care needs, or complex treatment plans. These professionals can help coordinate care, secure authorizations, and help patients stay within their insurance network. They can also assist with approvals and guide patients through their options while helping to keep costs manageable.

But at the end of the day, they do prioritize the needs of the insurance company. This can lead to decisions and recommendations that aren’t always in the patient’s best interests.

The upsides:

• No added cost: Services are typically included as part of an insurance plan.
• Insurance expertise: Case managers understand plan rules, network requirements, and coverage limits.
• Care coordination: They help route care and referrals in ways that fit the plan.
• Cost-conscious: They handle prior authorizations and encourage use of in-network providers.

The downsides:

• Limited scope: Support is restricted to insurance-related tasks, not broader care coordination or follow-up.
• Plan-aligned priorities: Recommendations are shaped by coverage rules and cost controls.
• Limited hands-on support: Case managers rarely handle appointment-scheduling or other logistics.
• Conditional help: Support may end if coverage changes or the patient no longer meets eligibility criteria.

The Trade-Off

Insurance case managers can be helpful for navigating network rules and coverage requirements, but their role is defined by the insurance plan. That means support is limited to whatever aligns with coverage and cost controls, not the full scope of a patient’s care.

Solace advocates work solely on behalf of the patient. They focus on what’s best for care decisions and coordination, without being bound by an insurer’s priorities.

Why Solace Offers a Better Path

Each option can help in the right situation. But their limits start to show once care is ongoing, complex, or connected with other parts of the healthcare system. Support splinters across programs and providers, each handling a narrow piece of the problem and then stepping back.

The patient handles the rest.

Solace fills these gaps. Unlike advocates employed by hospitals or insurance companies, Solace advocates operate independently in their role, staying focused on the patient rather than a single organization. Instead of handing problems back to you, advocates manage care across the entire system—for as long as you need help. When benefits, billing, care coordination, and treatment decisions intersect, your advocate owns the work of moving your care forward.

Solace is covered by Medicare because it replaces fragmented help with long-term, coordinated care. That approach reduces delays, errors, and avoidable healthcare problems.

If you need support with your healthcare, learn more about Solace.

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FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Advocacy Options

What do patient advocates do?

A healthcare advocate helps with things like scheduling appointments, coordinating care between providers, securing insurance approvals, and more. Some patient advocates work for hospitals or insurance companies, where their role is limited to a specific setting or type of issue. What they can do depends on where they work and who they work for.

How is a Solace advocate different from a hospital or insurance advocate?

Hospital and insurance advocates usually focus on one setting or one type of issue and are involved for a limited time. Solace advocates work across doctors, insurance, and care settings and stay involved as long as help is needed.

When should someone consider working with a patient advocate?

People often look for an advocate when care involves multiple doctors, insurance issues, or ongoing follow-up, especially when it starts to feel hard to stay on top of next steps.

Do patient advocates replace doctors or nurses?

No, advocates don’t provide medical care. They help with coordination, communication, and logistics so patients can get the most out of the care their doctors and nurses provide.

Is a Solace advocate only helpful for serious or complex illnesses?

No, Solace advocates can help with everyday healthcare challenges as well, such as scheduling appointments, explaining coverage and treatment options, or keeping care organized across different providers.