I live in rural Oregon and was having great difficulty finding the resources I needed for two surgeries required. I contacted Patient Advocators and was so grateful to find both Anne’s, who took on my case. They located a clinic in Boise, who took up my case and scheduled both surgeries. The Annes were extremely knowledgable, efficient and professional. I feel so blessed to have found these advocators. James Kemp

It was a sheer stroke of luck that we were connected with Patient Advocators and AnnMarie McIlwain–and one that has absolutely changed the entire course of my life. After being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, spending half of a year in various hospitals and rehabilitation centers, struggling to find the best in-home care and therapy–all the while trying to communicate with a team of medical professionals, discern their conflicting recommendations, and negotiate with insurance companies–my husband and I were feeling defeated, overwhelmed, and baffled by the entire process.

And then in early 2021, we found AnnMarie–who became my personal champion–and she took everything off our plate. She communicated with all medical parties and insurance companies to ensure I was receiving the proper care, patiently answered all of our questions, and saved us thousands (and thousands) of dollars to boot. To say she is highly skilled downplays her value; she is the epitome of a model advocate and quite literally goes to battle on your behalf.

If you, or someone you love, is in need of medical care, you need AnnMarie. Her calm spirit brings clarity; her compassionate counseling offers peace of mind; and her wise defense takes away the fear of financial ruin. I cannot recommend her more highly. She is an absolute blessing, a shining example of a true professional–and we are so grateful for her persistent support and ongoing assistance.

What a godsend! My mother had a very bad fall and in an instant my family and I found ourselves needing more help than any of us could have imagined. Annmarie jumped in immediately and guided us on choice of doctors and specialists, current research on the pros/cons of different procedures we needed to consider, insights on hospital care and rehabilitation center choices, advice and expense tracking on how to best access my mother’s Long Term Care insurance and submit for claims and reimbursements etc. And as if that wasn’t enough she arranged for professionals to come and retrofit the house with wheelchair ramps, had a chairlift installed between floors, provided a list of recommended contractors so we could get a gut renovation of the bathroom to be more accessible and ADA compliant, and then organized for at-home care and health aids, visiting PT services, and even food services that ensured there would always be meals throughout the day. We were all blown away by what she and her team were able to do. Throughout this eight-month ordeal, Annmarie was always gracious, comforting, calm and incredibly informative with every call and email. Worth every penny!! She’ll be our first call when/if there’s another family incident. Thank you so much Annmarie. You and your team are amazing!

AnnMarie quite probably saved my husband’s life. My husband was diagnosed with a very rare cancer and we weren’t happy with our options within the Canadian health care system. We needed help navigating and also being accepted into an American hospital where we could pay for the best care and treatment possible. She was such a pillar of support and so incredibly knowledgeable. She took so much stress off of me at a time when I needed it the most. She might have saved my life as well. I absolutely recommend her and would love for her to be my day-to-day life advocate.

In my humble unadulterated opinion you deserve ten stars considering you were able to perform miracles. thank you. g.

As a seasoned nurse, one would think I could find my own solutions but I could not. I desperately needed spine surgery for a severe disc herniation which was causing an inability to walk and frequent falls. The insurance company denied the surgery my spine surgeon wanted to perform, AnnMarie McIlwain provided the right combination of listening to me and giving me new information that led me to another spine surgeon who was able to perform the surgery that was really needed. I couldn’t be happier with the results. And I wouldn’t have gotten there without AnnMarie’s wisdom and knowledge.

AnneMarie Mcllwain and Patient Advocators was a wonderful asset in the healing of my father-in-law. There were many obstacles we were facing that she easily came in and fixed. Further, she aided better communication between all parties. Luckily, my father-in-law is now home and on the mend. Wish we had her from the beginning! In the future, I will not hesitate to pick up the phone and call her as soon as a loved one is in need of care or in the hospital.

As someone who spent 21 years as a leader in the healthcare industry, it would be understandable to think I could navigate the appropriate care for my 71 year old mother but I could not. I quickly realized the hospital and insurance company were working against me and began to look for a patient advocate to help us. I found AnnMarie the way everyone finds things today, using google. The search returned dozens of hits, but AnnMarie’s was the first one that specified she could help regardless of your location while the other’s appeared to be state specific. My story began with my mother taking a terrible fall in her backyard and breaking her femur away from her knee replacement. It was a nasty break and required major surgery to repair. Mom is a retired college professor and widow who was living completely independently (with minimal assistance like lawn service, occasional housekeeping help, etc.) when she fell. I knew that she was going to need intensive inpatient therapy to regain her mobility and get back to living her life. I knew which inpatient rehab hospital I wanted her to go to and made certain that her doctors, the case managers and insurance were aware. It was no surprise to me that Humana declined to cover the facility upon the first submission but within 24 hours of the denial the wheels were coming off the bus and the hospital was trying to force my mother into a skilled nursing facility. In layman’s terms, they were trying to send her to a nursing home where she would get none of the physical therapy or occupational therapy she was going to need. I began the appeals process only to be stonewalled by the hospital and the insurance company. They were lying to me, refusing to provide information to me and also trying to intimidate my mother into signing paperwork that would release her to a nursing home whenever I was not with her. I was furious and began my search for help. I will forever be grateful that I found AnnMarie. She realized that we needed to move fast and immediately emailed my mother and myself the paperwork we needed to complete, took down all of the information she needed to get started and jumped on it. She knew exactly what needed to be done to file an expedited family appeal but more importantly she knew we needed to get the surgeon to specify in the medical record that mom needed this level of rehabilitation. While I was trying to reach the surgeon, she was busy giving Humana and the hospital case manager a verbal beat down and backing them off of us. After more than 24 hours in which I was unable to reach the surgeon, AnnMarie said she would try. TEN MINUTES later I receive a message from her stating she had spoken to the surgeon, he was on board with what we wanted to do, would specify it in the medical record and have his office fax it over to Humana! This was Friday morning and although we had to listen to the hospital staff grumbling about wanting her out of there, telling us we were never going to win the appeal, putting more pressure on us to allow them to release her to skilled nursing and even stating that she would not get the level of care over the weekend she had been getting… it turns out they were very wrong. On Monday morning Humana reversed their decision and approved the Inpatient Rehabilitation facility! My mom has been in the facility for the past 36 hours and is already much more mobile, in much better spirits and can see a path to recovery that she couldn’t before. I will never attempt to navigate a major medical issue again without AnnMarie!

AnnMarie was instrumental in helping us find the right course of treatment for our daughters chronic health issues as well as finding assistive care. I highly recommend the services of her and her company

Very helpful, professional and caring. These services expedited treatment and saved us both times and money. Our daughter is doing well thanks in large part to the help of Patient Advocators!

I actually found AnneMarie by accident. She helped us identify a Long Term Care Facility with a locked unit for dementia patients and negotiated the insurance approval – so what does that mean… here is my story.

My mom was diagnosed with early stages of Dementia. She was refusing to do anything to get help with this diagnosis, and ended up in Penn Station Newark unattended with a one way bus ticket to Pennsylvania when she was found by the local police, completely confused and no idea where she needed to be. When they contacted us, we had her admitted to Mountainside Hospital for evaluation. My mother had no savings, no property and no assets. She was living on social security and had Medicare/Medicaid. In order to avoid the hospital releasing her to her own apartment, we had them admit her to the Psychiatric Unit for further evaluation, and with the hopes that from there we could get her into a Senior Facility with a “locked unit” as she was now considered an elopement risk. The hospital was insistent that we would have one or two, at most choices of a facility that would have a Medicaid bed available, and they needed to release her asap. This is when I started to research on line patients rights, etc, more looking to find someone who could help extend her stay until we could figure something out – she could not go home alone, and we were unable to move her in with to our home with our children and our working full time. This is when I came across AnneMarie. My husband and I called her that morning, and that very same day she met us at Mountainside and had arranged a team meeting with the staff. They were still insistent that it would be hard to find a facility. Well within 24 to 48 hours, AnneMarie, had found at least four to five facilities that had Medicaid beds available. We were astatic and ready to move her out! However, as things go, it did not pan out as the Medicaid my mother had, was not institutional Medicaid which is required to be in a long term facility. My husband and I had tried to do this previously on our own, so were now telling AnnMarie, how we would not be able to get this done, I kid you not, it was near impossible to get a single person through her insurance or Medicaid to commit to telling us how to have this done! This is where again AnneMarie said leave it to me, and off she went. For the next several weeks (while my mother remained in Mountainside with endless threats from the staff that she had to leave), AnneMarie, made call after call after call, some with us on, and some on her own where she could. Finally at what seemed the last hour before they sent my mother out the door AnneMarie pulled off getting her into a facility and had the Medicaid switched over. I still can not tell you how’s it is done, but I can tell you if you need help with Medicaid/Finding a facility for your loved one that accepts Medicaid, AnneMarie is the woman to call. AnneMarie was our guardian angel just when we needed her most, I have to honestly say without her I am not sure where my mother would be today. Give her a chance for sure, you will not be disappointed I am certain!