Sarasota, Fl

our services - Sarasota

Sarasota’s Trusted Patient Advocacy — Compassion, Clarity, and Support for Every Stage of Care

Navigating healthcare in Sarasota can feel confusing and overwhelming, especially when you’re managing specialists, insurance approvals, medical bills, and complex treatment decisions. Stepping Stone Advocacy provides the guidance and coordination that patients and families need — the kind of support that medical providers simply don’t have the time to offer. From understanding new diagnoses to organizing appointments, reviewing bills, and communicating with your care team, we ensure you always have someone in your corner.

As Sarasota’s patient advocates, we stand beside you to protect your best interests and restore confidence in every step of your care journey. Whether you’re supporting an aging parent, facing a new medical challenge, transitioning between providers, or feeling lost in the health system, Stepping Stone Advocacy helps you regain clarity and peace of mind. Your health matters. Your voice matters. And we’re here to make sure both are fully supported.

Our Services

Supporting Patients THROUGH health care Advocacy

At Stepping Stone Advocacy Services, we provide professional patient advocacy for patients from 18 years old to 100 years old and beyond. Whether you’re navigating a new medical diagnosis, facing a hospital discharge, managing a chronic condition, or seeking clarity in a complex healthcare system, our experienced nurse advocates offer the guidance, compassion, and support you need.

We tailor our approach depending on the individual’s age and specific needs. While our mission remains the same—to empower patients and families—our advocacy services are personalized.

Patients often face complex health decisions, insurance barriers, or fragmented care. Our patient advocates step in as trusted professionals to help you:

  • Understand diagnoses, treatment options, and prognoses
  • Navigate insurance claims, denials, and appeals
  • Coordinate care across doctors, specialists, and facilities
  • Transition between hospital, rehab, and home safely
  • Advocate for your healthcare wishes and quality of life goals

When cognitive decline, chronic illness, or aging presents new challenges, it is often the family caregivers—spouses, adult children, or loved ones—who take the lead. In these situations, we work closely with families to:

  • Communicate with healthcare providers and specialists
  • Interpret medical records and physician recommendations
  • Coordinate geriatric care, in-home services, or facility placement
  • Plan for aging in place or long-term care
  • Prevent medical errors during care transitions

Our role is to protect your loved one’s dignity, independence, and values, no matter where they are in their health journey.

INTERVENTIONS

Some of our interventions include:

Medical Guidance

  • Educate clients about new diagnosis & medical condition
  • Coordination and care oversight for families
  • Managing changes in health condition(s)
  • Serve as point of contact with medical staff

Decision Support

  • Discharge planning & transition of care
  • Occupational Therapy Home Safety Assessments
  • Selecting applicable specialists for client’s plan of care
  • Coordinate transfers between facilities & providers
  • Research diagnoses and secure second opinions

Recovery and Wellness

  • Explore alternative treatments as indicated
  • Connect clients and families with additional resources
  • Encourage client participation with prescribed treatments
  • Manage client stress & grief following medical events

Care Giver Support

  • Enhance quality of life for clients & family
  • Schedule and attend medical appointments
  • Coordinate home care options based on client needs
  • Identify relevant education for client & family

Medical Billing & Insurance Navigation

  • Audit medical bills
  • Challenge unjust denials, bills or out-of-pocket expenses
  • Coordinate directly with providers and insurers
  • Educate regarding insurance and claims

you don't have to navigate healthcare alone

Whether you’re a parent, caregiver, or individual managing your own health, we’re here to help. At Stepping Stone Advocacy Services, our mission is to bring clarity, calm, and compassionate care coordination to what can often feel like a stressful or overwhelming healthcare journey.

Schedule your free consultation today and let us walk beside you—every step of the way.

LORI IS EXTREMELY TALENTED!

What a great use of Lori’s talents!

I worked with Lori for several years during my career as an orthopedic surgeon. I know her to be not only compassionate and understanding but also a tireless advocate for what is right.

In difficult situations she was unwavering in her quest to enable me to provide the best possible care for my patients. She knows the system and how to work through it (and around it whenever necessary

LORI JUMPED RIGHT IN

If you are in need of a patient advocate, I would highly recommend Lori Schellenberg. She is extremely knowledgeable, effective, and professional. Knows when to be strong and forceful yet loving and caring with your loved one and your family. I was concerned about an elderly family member who had several severe falls, was forgetting to take medication, not eating healthy and not keeping up with housekeeping yet insistent she was fine and staying in her home. Even though Lori lived out of state she made phone calls on our behalf, made several recommendations to help us provide what our loved one needed and was an intermediary when it was necessary. Lori’s knowledge of geriatrics, continuous care/assisted living facilities, the health care system, long term care insurance and hospice is invaluable. She helped us put together a plan that provided the best and continuous care necessary for our loved one and our family. We are extremely thankful for her help and look forward to continuing to work with her as our loved one moves through the next phases of her life’s journey, thus enabling us to create loving memories.

LORI JUMPED RIGHT IN

My husband underwent nasal surgery 6 months ago, after he had a negative sleep study test and was referred to an ENT doctor due to continued fatigue and snoring.

Unfortunately, he developed two different serious infections, and we were concerned about his ongoing treatment with the ENT. In fact, we were very anxious because he wasn’t getting better but the surgeon was not clear with us as to what to do next.

When describing what was going on, Lori jumped right in, when she found out my husband was actually at the surgeon’s office at that time, and still did not understand the situation. She recommended that my husband ask to have the surgeon come back into the room, and to call her so that she could speak to the surgeon with my husband in the room. Lori was very professional and knowledgeable in her approach with his surgeon. She established a treatment plan, in a way that my husband could understand, and why this was the plan. She also discussed the “what ifs” the current treatment plan did not work. He ordered further tests to be completed prior to his next appointment, if he did not improve.

She followed up with my husband and I to make sure we understood the plan.

By advocating for my husband, Lori relieved a lot of anxiety and stress that this current medical concern was causing, and they felt more confident in the surgeon’s care.

We highly recommend Lori and Stepping Stone Advocacy Services, if you are experiencing a medical condition, and don’t know where to turn for answers. She is experienced and professional, yet able to discuss medical terms in a way that we understood.