Introduction
In a healthcare system as vast and complex as that of the United States, patients frequently encounter confusing insurance procedures, limited care access, and a general sense of disempowerment when dealing with health providers and institutions. The system, though advanced in many medical capabilities, often falls short in offering clarity, coordination, and compassionate communication. It is in this environment that CHCAO, the Coalition of Health Care Advocacy Organizations, steps forward as a transformative force.
Established in 2022, CHCAO is dedicated to improving healthcare experiences by empowering patient advocates, setting national standards for the profession, and supporting the rights of individuals navigating medical decisions. This article explores every facet of CHCAO, including its origins, structure, mission, achievements, challenges, and strategic direction for the future.
The Origins of CHCAO
When and Why Was CHCAO Founded?
CHCAO was officially formed in 2022 as a response to the increasing fragmentation within the healthcare advocacy field. Prior to its formation, advocacy efforts were often isolated within individual organizations, lacking a unified voice to influence national policy or to build shared standards. There was a growing realization that, despite the crucial role advocates play in improving patient outcomes, their efforts were under-recognized and inconsistently supported. CHCAO emerged as a collaborative initiative to address these gaps and create a coalition where shared resources, collective research, and joint training efforts could elevate the profession of advocacy.
Who Is Behind CHCAO?
CHCAO was co-founded by several leading patient and healthcare advocacy organizations, including the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy (NAHAC), Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy, HealthAdvocateX, and others. NAHAC serves as CHCAO’s fiscal sponsor, offering administrative support and helping guide the coalition’s early growth. These founding members recognized that by coming together under a shared identity, they could do more than offer support—they could shape the future of how advocacy fits into the broader healthcare ecosystem. Together, these organizations laid the groundwork for a coalition committed to equity, transparency, and patient-centered care.
CHCAO’s Mission and Core Pillars
CHCAO’s mission is deeply rooted in five central pillars: visibility, unity, standards, accessibility, and empowerment. Each of these principles plays a distinct role in CHCAO’s efforts to transform healthcare advocacy. Visibility means raising awareness about the critical role advocates play in healthcare and ensuring that advocacy is widely recognized across systems. Unity involves fostering collaboration across independent organizations, encouraging them to share tools, training, and perspectives rather than working in isolation.
Standards refer to the establishment of clear, ethical, and professional benchmarks that advocates can use to guide their practices. Accessibility underscores the coalition’s commitment to ensuring all patients, regardless of background, geography, or socioeconomic status, have access to qualified advocacy services. Empowerment is perhaps the most crucial pillar—CHCAO works tirelessly to ensure that patients and caregivers are equipped to actively participate in healthcare decisions and have their voices heard in policy discussions.
How CHCAO Works – Structure & Operations
Coalition Model
CHCAO operates as a membership-based coalition that welcomes advocacy organizations with a shared vision for improving patient care. Every member organization contributes unique expertise—some focus on elder care, others on chronic conditions, health equity, or insurance navigation. CHCAO’s inclusive structure fosters an environment where best practices can be shared, peer support is abundant, and innovation is encouraged. While there is no strict requirement for by-invitation membership, organizations are expected to uphold CHCAO’s shared ethical standards and contribute meaningfully to its strategic goals.
Leadership & Governance
CHCAO’s governance is supported through its fiscal sponsorship by NAHAC. Operational decisions are made by a steering committee and various working groups that focus on education, policy, and research. Advisory panels composed of experts from different member organizations provide input on ethical considerations, curriculum development, and coalition growth strategies. This distributed leadership model ensures that decisions reflect a broad range of professional experiences and that no single perspective dominates the coalition’s direction.
Key Functions
CHCAO engages in several core activities: it facilitates open communication between advocates across the country, supports the development of health policy that includes advocacy voices, organizes educational events, including webinars and national summits, and conducts research on the role and impact of advocacy. These functions allow CHCAO to act both as a professional network and as a catalyst for system-level change.
What Makes CHCAO Unique in Today’s Healthcare System
The traditional U.S. healthcare system often lacks mechanisms for ensuring patient understanding, coordination, and choice—especially in complex or high-stress situations. CHCAO addresses this gap by championing the inclusion of qualified advocates in care teams. Unlike informal patient helpers, advocates affiliated with CHCAO member organizations are trained in health systems, ethics, and communication.
They improve care by ensuring patients receive timely information, are treated with respect, and can access the full scope of care options. For example, a CHCAO-trained advocate working with a rural cancer patient might coordinate between an overwhelmed family, multiple specialists, and a far-away treatment center—bridging the gap between clinical care and lived experience. CHCAO’s approach creates a nationwide safety net of professional guidance, especially for the most vulnerable.
Key Achievements of CHCAO (2022–Present)
Landmark Survey – “Impact of Patient and Health Care Advocates”
In 2023, CHCAO released a comprehensive survey titled “The Impact of Patient and Health Care Advocates,” collecting feedback from over 500 patients, providers, and advocates. The results were powerful—over 90% of participants reported that advocacy had a positive impact on patient outcomes, communication, and decision-making. This report provided long-awaited quantitative validation for the field and positioned CHCAO as a data-driven leader in healthcare improvement.
Professional Events & Collaborations
CHCAO has actively participated in national advocacy summits, including partnerships with the Healthcare Advocate Summit and virtual roundtables on care quality and equity. These events have created invaluable spaces for peer learning, certification support, and coalition building. Online learning platforms launched by CHCAO offer on-demand ethics training, business development tools, and emerging topics like AI in advocacy.
Position Statements and Policy Impact
CHCAO has published several public position statements aligning advocacy with policy reform. One major milestone was their collective support for the adoption of new Medicare codes—specifically the Principal Illness Navigation (PIN) codes—which allow for care coordination reimbursement. By connecting this reform with advocacy, CHCAO ensured that advocates would have a role in federally supported care models.
Code of Ethics Development
Together with the Heart for Advocacy organization and NAHAC, CHCAO played a pivotal role in drafting and promoting the 2023 Health Care Advocacy Code of Ethics. This framework promotes transparency, patient-centered service, and equity, and provides advocates with clear principles to guide complex interactions.
CHCAO’s Role in Defining Professional Advocacy Standards
Standardization is one of CHCAO’s greatest contributions to the field. In a space where individuals often operate independently, CHCAO promotes consistent training, documentation, and accountability. Their framework outlines competencies in clinical understanding, health insurance navigation, and interpersonal communication. They also advocate for voluntary certification through recognized boards like the Patient Advocate Certification Board (PACB). By encouraging certification and clear ethical guidelines, CHCAO enhances trust between advocates and the healthcare institutions they interact with.
The Vital Role of Advocacy in Healthcare (And CHCAO’s Support)
What Advocates Do
Professional advocates perform vital work often missed by care providers. They help patients understand diagnoses and treatment plans, navigate complex insurance processes, coordinate between specialists and care teams, and provide emotional support during vulnerable times. Their presence often leads to better adherence to treatment, lower readmission rates, and more satisfied patients.
How CHCAO Empowers Advocates
CHCAO empowers advocates by offering them structured training, mentorship opportunities, peer support groups, best practice toolkits, and access to policy-making channels. Many advocates also find employment opportunities, partnerships, and recognition through CHCAO-related initiatives. In short, CHCAO transforms independent advocates into an organized professional force capable of creating large-scale change.
Challenges Faced by CHCAO
Public Awareness
One of CHCAO’s biggest hurdles is that many patients are unaware that advocacy services even exist. The coalition has responded with digital awareness campaigns and partnerships with health media to spread the message.
Policy & Reimbursement Barriers
Despite advocacy’s proven value, many services remain unreimbursed under most insurance models. CHCAO continues to push for legislative changes to include advocacy within reimbursable care models.
Standardization vs. Flexibility
Creating a standardized ethical framework while still honoring the diversity of advocacy approaches (medical, social, financial) remains a balancing act. CHCAO tackles this by inviting diverse voices to contribute to standards and keeping guidelines adaptable.
Financial Sustainability
As a growing coalition, CHCAO must secure long-term funding to sustain its research, training, and outreach. It relies on member support, donations, grants, and partnerships to fund its vision.
CHCAO’s Future Roadmap
CHCAO has an ambitious roadmap ahead. It aims to expand advocacy services to underrepresented groups, including rural, immigrant, and BIPOC populations. It also plans to strengthen the pipeline of certified advocates by supporting national certification boards and mentoring new professionals. Policy-wise, CHCAO intends to influence federal and state regulations to formally integrate advocacy into healthcare teams and reimbursement models. The coalition is also exploring how technology—such as telehealth and advocacy software—can support remote service delivery. Continued research on advocacy outcomes will help guide evidence-based advocacy practices and shape future funding streams.
Why CHCAO’s Work Matters to Everyone
For Patients
Patients gain access to a voice and a trained guide who can help them navigate illness, understand treatment, and avoid costly errors or delays in care.
For Providers
Physicians and hospitals benefit from better communication, improved care adherence, and fewer misunderstandings.
For Policymakers
CHCAO provides credible, data-driven insight into how advocacy improves care outcomes and system efficiency.
For Advocates
Advocates receive structure, resources, and legitimacy—turning an emerging field into a true profession.
How to Support or Get Involved with CHCAO
Anyone can support CHCAO’s mission by spreading awareness, sharing educational resources, and encouraging local hospitals and clinics to connect with CHCAO-affiliated organizations. Healthcare professionals can invite CHCAO speakers to events or participate in cross-training workshops. Advocates can join member organizations, subscribe to newsletters, or attend national summits. The general public can follow CHCAO’s updates and help elevate the visibility of advocacy as a life-changing resource.
Conclusion
CHCAO is more than just a network—it is a movement dedicated to reshaping the role of advocacy in American healthcare. From raising awareness and educating advocates to setting professional standards and influencing policy, CHCAO brings clarity, compassion, and community to a healthcare system that desperately needs it. Its mission is both simple and powerful: make healthcare better by making advocacy stronger. As the coalition continues to grow, so too will the movement for equitable, personalized, and just care for all.
FAQs About CHCAO
1. What is CHCAO?
CHCAO stands for the Coalition of Health Care Advocacy Organizations. It is a national group in the United States that brings healthcare advocacy organizations together to improve patient support, raise professional standards, and make healthcare fairer and easier to understand.
2. What does CHCAO do?
CHCAO trains and supports healthcare advocates, works on creating strong ethical standards for the advocacy profession, promotes patient-centered care, and helps organizations collaborate so patients receive better communication, guidance, and care during medical situations.
3. Why is CHCAO important in healthcare?
CHCAO is important because the healthcare system can be confusing and overwhelming. CHCAO ensures patients have advocates who can help them understand medical information, speak up for their needs, and make informed decisions, leading to better health outcomes.
4. Who can benefit from CHCAO?
Patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, and professional advocates all benefit from CHCAO. Patients get guidance and support, caregivers get stress relief, healthcare providers get clearer communication, and advocates receive training and professional recognition.
5. How can someone get involved with CHCAO?
Anyone interested in advocacy can visit the CHCAO website, join a member organization, attend training sessions, participate in advocacy summits, or support awareness campaigns. This helps strengthen the movement for better, more patient-centered healthcare.
For More Information, Visit Fourmagazine
