Take advantage of this unique opportunity to hear from patients and caregivers and learn what you can do to better serve the Medicare community.
For Laura Carroll, Alan Coker, and Dionne L. Stalling, the message is simple: “Nothing about us, without us.”
Patients and caregivers must be represented in boardrooms, conference panels, and whenever and wherever there are discussions about health care, says Carroll, the primary caregiver of her disabled husband, a dual-eligible member of Medicare and Medicaid, who lives in a small rural community in Colorado.
“Our faces have to pop up in people's minds whenever we are talking about these very important issues,” Carroll says.
Carroll is one of three panelists who will share their personal journeys at RISE West 2025 to provide health care leaders with insights into what’s working, what isn’t, and where there is opportunity for improvement. The session, which will take place on Monday, August 25, the first day of the conference, is presented in partnership with the Camden Coalition.
Amid what seems like constant negative publicity about Medicare Advantage (MA), Caroll says she and her husband are fans of their MA plan and wants to share with attendees that their work matters. “I think in times like these, the Medicare Advantage plans are getting a bad rap right now, and there's reasons for it. You know, we could discuss all of that, but the whole story is that they're also doing a whole lot of good out there,” she says.
Her MA plan has changed the way her family operates, Carroll added. “I could not manage the care for my husband if I did not have that dually eligible Medicare Advantage plan. They’re changing lives.”
Joining Carroll on the panel are Coker, a board member of Advocacy Unlimited and Amplify of CT, an advisory committee that’s working with Medicare and Medicaid for the state of Connecticut, and Stalling, founder/executive director of Rare and Black, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower and uplift Black patients living with rare disorders.
Health care journalist and consumer advocate Archelle Georgiou, M.D., who will also present a keynote address on navigating change prior to the panel discussion, will serve as the moderator.
RELATED: Dr. Archelle Georgiou to present opening keynote at RISE West 2025
Coker, who lives in Manchester, Conn., has both Medicare Advantage and Medicaid through the HUSKY Health Program. He plans to share his story of having to advocate for himself to get out of a nursing home after having a stroke in 2017 and his health care journey since then. RISE West attendees, he says, will learn from people who have lived experience, what they’ve had to navigate the system, and what they had to do to get their medication.
“Just by showing up, listening to people with lived experience, you’re going to learn something,” he says.
Stalling agrees. The St. Louis-resident wears several hats. In addition to her advocacy work, Stalling is a caregiver as well as a rare disease patient. “I’m dually eligible and so is my mom. I’m struggling though because none of my doctors take Medicaid,” she says.
It’s imperative, she says, that the people who work for insurance companies understand that patient journeys are not the same and there shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all plan. Like Carroll, Stalling believes that all health conferences should include the patient perspective.
“The insurance is for us, the medicine is for us, and the drugs are for us,” she says. “Insurance companies need to hear our types of stories so that when they're training their people and they're doing employee development, they need to hear stories from patients to make them think like, hey, I was at that conference, and I remember they talked about XYZ. So it can always stay top of mind when they're implementing their policies and procedures.”
RISE West 2025 will take place August 25-27 at the Paris Las Vegas. The patient panel discussion is scheduled for 4:25 on Monday, August 25. Click here for more details, including the full agenda, roster of speakers, and how to register.