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Pulse on the Road Speakers |
I enjoyed a lovely weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, a wonderful city that was enduring a collective sigh over the loss of the World Series. Still, with sunny skies we held another Pulse on the Road with the Northern Ohio Hemophilia Foundation. Program/Advocacy Manager Randi Clites invited us earlier this year and we were thrilled to finally make it.
A solid turnout of families came to hear Kelly Lynn Gonzales share her riveting personal story of advocacy. You can read Kelly Lynn’s story in our latest edition of Pulse magazine, available on our website.
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Michelle Rice and Kelly Lynn Gonzlaes |
I followed next, with a presentation entitled “Sympathy for the Payer,” a play on the song “Sympathy for the Devil,” appropriate as Cleveland is home to the famous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I believe that if we can try to understand better how payers think, we can better advocate to them our need for access to product and providers for the best comprehensive care. I compared insurance to a chess game, and it’s our responsibility to know who the players are, what their moves might be and how to counter move.
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Laurie Kelley introducing Patrick James Lynch |
Michelle Rice, senior vice president of public policy and stakeholder relationship, NHF, then gave a new presentation called “Don’t Get Lost in Translation,” and shared the various acronyms, definitions and concepts payers use. All this information would be useful for someone with a bleeding disorder to self-advocate to payers, as Kelly Lynn successfully did.
Finally, after lunch… who knew insurance could be fun? Patrick James Lynch, of Believe Limited, and his teammates Ryan Gielen and Rob Bradford, engaged the audience in “Factor Feud,” a new game that allowed teams to compete using the knowledge they just absorbed through our presentations. Modeled after the TV game show Family Feud, Patrick acted as game show host and asked the teams at their tables to recall answers to various questions gleaned from our presentations. We all had a laugh when he asked the toughest question: What were the nine counter moves Laurie listed that payers have made in the last few years? Even I had a hard time remembering what I had said!
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Patrick James Lynch |
For each question Patrick charismatically posed, the teams consulted at their tables, racing against the clock. They wrote their answers on a white board, came to the front of the room—while game show music played and Rob swayed—and ta-da! Flipping their white boards over, Patrick read off the answers. The team with the right answers advanced an extra logo on the huge Factor Feud white board. Everyone got into the game immediately and loved it!
So not only did the audience of bleeding disorder families get tons of information about insurance, they got to revisit it, recall from memory, and compete to give correct answers. What an effective and fun way to learn!
Patrick is the perfect game show host, and the fact that he has hemophilia reminded me of how much talent and passion there is in our community. After the event, Sean, a father of a child with hemophilia, approached us and thanked us deeply for our efforts. He said this was one of the best information days he had been to.
Thanks to Sean for that, thanks to Randi Clites for hosting us, thanks to Shire for funding us, thanks to my fellow presenters—Kelly Lynn Gonzales and Michelle Rice—and thanks to Believe Limited for all the fun!
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Answers please! |
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Patrick engages the audience |
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Ryan tracks the teams |
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The Factor Feud participants |
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Rob loves the 70s style theme song! |
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Susan Moore jots her answers down |
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Who won? |