Bruce Purdy cared for his husband, Barrett, for decades as Barrett battled Parkinson’s disease. When Barrett’s health worsened, Purdy found himself lonely and exhausted—and on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
“He had Parkinson’s for 24 years; then … he got very, very sick,” Purdy said.
Over the course of 18 months, Barrett was in and out of the hospital at least six times,
“I was emotionally alone; dealing with insurance companies and hospitals became increasingly difficult,” Purdy said. “I just broke down.”
Purdy’s friends recommended that he hire a professional who could help him with Barrett—a health advocate.
“At first, I said no; I thought I could just do it all on my own, but my friends pushed,” Purdy said.
Patient-health advocacy can be an important tool in health care, and advocates say it is underutilized due to limited awareness, and families’ belief in doing things on their own. Advocates are hired to educate patients and their families, and help them navigate the health-care system, from scheduling appointments and understanding diagnoses to understanding insurance coverage and even visiting patients.
There’s one other reason it’s underutilized: It can be expensive, with private advocates often charging $100 to $500 an hour.
“Barrett just got increasingly sicker and sicker, and I needed help,” Purdy said. “I interviewed half a dozen people, and I found Tammy Porter. I hired her, and she saved me by really working with the hospitals and hospice workers and just supporting Barrett and me.”
Barrett conceded that not everybody can afford a health advocate. “But when I didn’t think I could do it alone any longer, and I was at the end of my rope, I’d tell (Porter), ‘I just can’t go to the hospital again.’ Porter would say, ‘I’ll take care of it.’”
By hiring a health advocate, Purdy said he became more knowledgeable about the complexity of health care and insurance.
“(Porter) would lay it out in simple terms, whenever I was confused about why doctors needed to do certain tests on Barrett,” Purdy added.
Barrett passed away in April 2025.
“(Porter) played a significant role … and she just supported me when I was in complete denial,” Purdy said. “When he passed, she dealt with all the minutiae that it takes when someone passes away. I am forever grateful.”
Porter started her Coachella Valley company, MyHealth.MyAdvocate, in 2021, after more than 35 years as a nurse and hospital case manager.
“What I felt time and time again was concern about older adults … who weren’t prepared emotionally, physically or cognitively for all of this that was going to transpire at home,” Porter said. “Sometimes there was good family involvement, and sometimes there wasn’t. For a hospital case manager, it’s out of their control once the patient leaves the hospital. … So I brought all my internal health-care experience to develop the business to do more for patients in the desert.”
Cindy Johnson is a health advocate at Patient Advocate Agency. A health advocate since 2018, Johnson started as a nurse and later became a medical-education specialist. Johnson said that even though she worked in the medical field, she didn’t fully understand how challenging it can be to navigate the health-care system.
“It wasn’t until I had my first child, who had some major health issues, that I discovered how difficult the health-care system was for somebody with complex medical conditions, or multiple (conditions),” Johnson said.
Johnson advocates for many elderly residents of the Coachella Valley. More than 35% of adults in the Coachella Valley are in their 60s or older, according to the 2025 community health survey by Health Assessment and Research for Communities (HARC).
“A lot of times, I get hired by adult children or siblings outside of the valley who are trying to keep a pulse on what’s going on with their loved one,” Johnson said. “They’re not here, and maybe mom or dad are starting to have memory loss, and they hire me to go in and make sure that if they’re home, they get home health care.”
Johnson said advocates take care of coordination and case management. If a patient is in assisted living, advocates can provide oversight to make sure that medications are correct.
In 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created a new billing code that allowed Medicare to cover certain patient-advocacy services. Programs like Solace Health, a health-care advocacy platform, can help patients find insurance-covered health advocates.
“Everyone deserves advocacy, but I know access to privately paid professional services like mine can be limited for some people by cost. In spite of that, there are still agencies like Solace,” Porter said. “So I don’t think anyone is limited these days to having privately paid advocates. Even if it’s a limited amount of medical advocacy, it still helps families.”
