Raised by her elderly grandparents and protected from abuse as a child by a kind, female physician at an urgent care center she went to for care as a pediatric patient, Marilyn developed a passion for medicine and patient care at a very young age.
In 2005, with her Grandmother's help, Marilyn graduated from the Medical Assisting program at a vocational school in Sacramento, California. In 2013, Marilyn became a military spouse and traveled from coast to coast working for every big name medical giant in the healthcare industry from Kaiser Permanente, HCA/IMed, Mercy Medical Group/ Dignity Health, University of Colorado to American Radiology, Touchstone Imaging and various private practice providers, in various roles from California to Maryland before landing in Denver, Colorado where her spouse completed his career. Through duty station changes, Marilyn attended hundreds of hours of some of the best corporaate customer service training available in the healthcare industry. Turning a disadvantage to an advantage, Mari building a very unique skill set that allows her to be an effective advocate for patients in need.
Through her experience as an active duty military spouse, Marilyn gained experience and understanding of what our service members and their families deal with while navigating the military medical system and accessing care. Walter Reed Bethesda Hospital, Fort Belvoir and Joint Base Andrews are some of the best in the nation, but patient care errors happen, even with the best providers. Marilyn's experience with the EFMP program for active duty families with significant medical diagnosis is just another well honed weapon in her arsenal. Let's just say the spouse's command got a phone call or two over our time at that duty station... and the next, but I always made sure comannd knew the situation before I moved, to avoid issues. Upon outprocessing from JB Andrews, an EFMP NCO slammed his office door in my face when I arrived to out process to PCS. Guess he didn't see the base patient advocate whom I had brought with me to witness my attempts to get my paperwork done and leave, peacefully.
With 20 years of experience in healthcare as Certified Medical Assistant, 12 years as a military spouse having to survive military medicine on base and several decades of navigating her own complex medical history including 12 surgeries and a heart condition, this medical assistant learned how to advocate with the very best of them... Always a professional, my services help patients navigate complex medical situations in a system they don't know or undertand.
Marilyn is passionate about teaching patients, especially the elderly, how to utilize the tools available through their patient rights to protect themselves and stay safe in a medical industry that started putting profits over patients and mid levels over Doctors to bend to insurance reimbursements.
Our CEO at 5280 Patient Advocacy, Marilyn, is a known savage. Kind, but firm. Nicknamed by "The Beast" by her team of Medical Assistants and loved by patients from coast to coast, Marilyn is known to stand on business in the industry. Her motto? "Do no harm but take no sh*t." Patients deserve providers who care and healthcare that works.
We coordinate with trusted big name hospitals and private practices alike. We work together with providers, company advocates and families to ensure patients medical needs are being met. We network with providers, RN's, medical assistants and various licensed professionals throughout the healthcare industry.
