Empowering Health Care Consumers

By

Community Service Society of New York

Funding Area

Empowering Health Care Consumers

Date

April 30, 2019

This NYHealth-funded website by the Community Service Society of New York serves as a resource and platform for consumers to tell their stories and become patient advocates for health system reform.

Patient-driven health care advocacy is often individualized and fragmented. Unlike other health care stakeholders, individual patients often don’t have the resources, influence, and networks to engage in effective, ongoing advocacy. What’s missing is a dedicated platform for patients to share their experiences and objectives.

WeThePatientsNY.org is a campaign to empower consumers to speak for themselves about their health care experiences and their preferences for policy solutions. Consumers will have a place to share stories that describe their health care experiences, including issues related to lack of access to and cost and quality of care; medical harm; discrimination; and bureaucratic obstacles.

We the Patients NY will also empower consumers to become patient advocates, where they can take small actions to engage in policy change, such as liking or sharing a post, signing a petition, or sharing their own story, and—if they choose—take bigger steps by participating in training programs to further build their advocacy skills and engagement. Initial campaigns will focus on simplifying medical billing, stopping surprise bills, ending facility fee charges, and improving dental health coverage.