35 Years of Nursing Experience
Never face a doctor’s appointment alone.
A second set of ears when it matters most — an independent, nurse‑led patient advocacy concept for Austin, TX.
A second set of ears when it matters most — an independent, nurse‑led patient advocacy concept for Austin, TX.
The Problem
Patients are expected to make life-changing decisions during some of the most stressful moments of their lives — and the system isn’t built to slow down for them.
Median time before a clinician interrupts a patient who's explaining a concern. A patient who's allowed to finish takes a median of just 6 seconds. Letting someone finish is faster than cutting them off.
Of adults over 65 have basic or below-basic health literacy. Only 3% are proficient. Medical terminology is genuinely hard to understand — it isn't a personal failing.
Of patients who challenged a wrong medical bill got it reduced or wiped out entirely. But fewer than half of people who get a wrong bill challenge it at all — most don't know they have the right to.
Appealed Medicare Advantage denials are overturned. But only 1 in 9 denials is ever appealed — most people simply accept "no" as the final answer.
Americans are now family caregivers, up 45% since 2015. Only 58% say coordinating care with providers is even "easy" — a number that's been falling for a decade.
Of patients referred for a second opinion at an academic medical center received a distinctly different diagnosis. Only 12% had their original diagnosis confirmed unchanged.
Our Solution
Think of us as a professional healthcare guide.
What we don't do
Service #1 — The Flagship
“Never Face a Doctor’s Appointment Alone.”
A Real Example
Doctor: “We’ll start immunotherapy and monitor progression.”
Patient: “Okay.”
Appointment ends.
The physician still answers every question. The patient simply leaves with a much better understanding.
Service #2 — The Add-On
Hospital bills are complicated. Patients often don’t know what they’re paying for, whether insurance processed correctly, or whether services match documentation.
Who Would Use This?
Research suggests the person who actually pays is often the adult child, not the patient — Austin households headed by someone 65+ have a median income well below households headed by someone 45–64, the age band most likely to be their kids.
Why Gigi?
35 years as a nurse. Thousands of patients. Thousands of physician interactions. Years inside hospitals.
“A second set of ears when it matters most.”
Business Model
A starting structure based on what's actually working at comparable nurse-led Texas practices — not a guess, and not one of the wild "$50–$500/hour" ranges that circulate online with no data behind them.
30-minute phone or video call to see if it's a fit. No obligation.
Comprehensive intake, 2–3 hours: health history, concerns, goals, and a written plan.
Appointment accompaniment, care coordination, communication with providers.
Prepaid hours for ongoing support, drawn down as needed.
Urgent, after-hours, or bedside work during a hospital stay.
Never percentage-based — see the legal note under Service #2.
This places a launch rate at or just above the Texas published median for comparable nurse-led practices, and well below the coastal/national tier. Publishing prices at all would be unusual in this field — most advocate websites don't. That opacity is an opportunity: being clear about cost is a real point of difference.
Why Now, Why Austin
Two national companies, one backed by over $200M in venture funding, are already marketing "Medicare-covered" virtual advocacy into Austin.
But that coverage runs through a Medicare code that pays about $80 for an hour of work, has to be billed through a doctor's office, and can't reach the kind of in-person, bedside, high-touch work Gigi is built to do.
The cheap version and the real version aren't competing for the same client.
The Opportunity — Our Goal
We are exploring whether there is a need for an independent nurse-led patient advocacy service.
We are looking for honest feedback — not customers.
Behind the Deck
Every claim in this deck traces back to a source. These are the working research files — download any of them as a PDF.
Competitors, demographics, hospitals, and referral channels in Central Texas.
Download →Rate benchmarks, retainers, caseload thresholds, and market-size sanity checks.
Download →Nursing board scope of practice, HIPAA status, insurance, and bill-review limits.
Download →LLC vs. PLLC, filing costs, franchise tax, and Austin/Travis County requirements.
Download →BCPA certification, professional associations, and the fastest path to credibility.
Download →Every stat behind the problem slide, sourced — plus what didn't survive a fact check.
Download →