Empowering, educating and emboldening others to have more control and understanding of their health and how to stay well is the motivation many of us have for entering the healing professions. Yet, along the way, that motivation can become buried under the demands of administrative procedure and protocol. Sound familiar?

Recently, the Institute of Medicine and Medicare, have confirmed what many of us have known for decades – that preventing disease and costly procedures is a far better approach than treating chronic disease, and prevention also saves millions of lives and billions of dollars. The mandated Value-Care programs require disease prevention and patient health education be now documented in medical records and the patient treated from a Whole Person perspective.

Are you ready to take your passion for health and wellness and reclaim your love for health care? This new whole person care direction of medicine, along with the NIWH’s Institute for Credentailing Excellence (ICE) accredited training, will rekindle the fulfillment and joy you anticipated in choosing to serve other through the healing professions!

NIWH provides the whole package for success – whether in private practice or in partnership within a medical practice. Billing and Coding expert guidance, practice building, professional networking, and success mentoring are all available to NIWH learners and graduates from initial enrollment to graduation and beyond! All learners, past and present, are part of the Whole Family and Community at NIWH and are always welcome to participate in all Whole Health offerings. We want you to succeed!!

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A recent article in the AHNA Nursing magazine, Beginning, outlines the Value Care programs and the more holistic direction primary care medicine is taking. Below is a summary of how the NIWH 3-in-1 Whole Health Education program prepares health professionals for the emerging “new medicine” and what career credentials, increased income, employment and self-employment opportunities are available for you at the completion of this program. You can also view this comparison chart to see the many advantages and benefits to our training compared with health coaching programs.

> Patient Health Education is included in the scope of practice of most licensed medical, health, mental health and health education professional’s scope of practice. Patient health education has been an under utilized, critical missing component of patient care and is now recognized as the primary focus for enhancing disease prevention, reducing the occurrence of chronic disease and decreasing costly medical procedures which do not address the cause of chronic or acute conditions.

> By 2018, all Medicare payment for healthcare services will require the Value-Care guidelines be followed and documented. This means patient health education and whole person care will be required to be demonstrated and reported in the patient medical records for optimal payment to be made to the billing physician. In the event of an audit, these requirements will need to be present or fines and/or refunds to the Medicare office can be imposed.

> Individual medical facilities, hospitals, medical practices, nursing homes, corporate wellness departments, assisted living facilities, rehabilitation facilities, mental health facilities and so forth, can call the role of the patient health educator something different.

To give you an idea of the wide range of job positions and possibilities our where patient health education is application, please review this list of real time job descriptions which have been gleaned from Linked-In, Indeed, Career Builder, and Simply Hired.com. You can find in your geographical area job listing by checking each one of these job titles as it is the discretion of the employer what title they place on their job posting.

Please note: while many listing may appear under “health coaching”, “wellness coaching”, “nurse coaching”, “health and wellness coaching”, or other similar descriptions, medical coaching position are looking for individuals who are educators or nurses or those who have a 4 year training/degree or current license in health care, mental health, health education, health sciences or related professions. These job descriptions are principally focused on patient health education and advocacy, and prefer the candidate to have some health coaching skills training.

“After receiving my Whole Health Educator credentials through NIWH, I felt completely confident in my skills and training to begin my own Whole Health Education practice and am concurrently working with a Reproductive Endocrinologist’s office. Applying for and receiving my National Provider Identification number as a Health Educator was straight-forward and now I accept Flex Spending payments and can be reimbursed for my services when I see patients through local doctor’s offices, making it easier for people to afford and benefit from Whole Health Education. Having an NPI number has given me credibility with doctors and clients and allowed me to open up additional doors and revenue streams.” Heather Novak, MS in Counseling – NIWH Graduate

Please note: while many listing may appear under “health coaching”, “wellness coaching”, “nurse coaching” or “health and wellness coaching”, medical coaching position are looking for individuals who are nurses or who have a 4 year training/degree or current license in health care, mental health, health education, health sciences or related professions. These job descriptions are principally focused on patient health education and advocacy, and prefer the candidate to have some health coaching skills training.

> In medical practices with a minimum of 2,000 patients, the inclusion of patient health education services can create increased patient satisfaction survey ratings, improved patient-provider relationships, increase in treatment outcomes and an increasing in the practice’s gross income by $600,000 per year. NIWH developed a specialty, expert prepared billing and coding manual that is provided to all NIWH graduates specifically for patient health education billing and coding. Medical practices benefit on all levels when incorporating patient health education and advocacy as part of their services.

“Coming from a Health Coaching background, I found that there was something missing when trying to assist individuals with making a sustainable behavior change. Through my experience with the program at the National Institute of Whole Health, I was able to identify what that missing piece in Health Coaching was. The courses provided the education needed to be able to supply evidence-based health information to patients, and the case study portion of the program helped facilitate the personal WHY for change in patients. This was the missing piece. The program taught me how to assist patients in finding their individual “why” they needed, so that the changes can be sustained for a lifetime.” Judith Brinn, BS, Obesity certified, WHE, CHHC – an NIWH Graduate currently working for Humana

The NIWH 3-in-1 Patient Health Educator training also provides all the business or practice development, legal information and billing and coding information a learner might need to be very successful in the health care specialty of patient health education. Visit our Resources – Network page to see the many free services provided to our graduates and the resources thatare available long after graduation.For more information about the National Institute of Whole Health and our nationally accredited patient health education and advocacy programs visit us at www.niwh.org.