Welcome! Archived June 2019

We welcome you to this central resource of information about our organization, the Patient Advocate Certification Board (PACB). We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization focused on development and maintenance of certification for the profession of patient advocacy.

Registration is now available for the 2019 certification exams! Learn more.

The goal of the Patient Advocate Certification Board (PACB) is to develop standards and practices that reflect the broad knowledge and insight of our diverse professional community, not just the perspective of any single individual or organization. Accordingly, PACB’s publicly released documents are the product of countless hours of volunteer work by a diverse group of PACB members, task force members, practitioners, educators, and professionals, drawing on numerous sources as well as their own professional experiences. PACB employs a careful and deliberative process that involves research, discussion, drafting, review, editing, critique, posting for public comment, revision, clarification, final editing and posting of the final version on the PACB website.

PACB’s standards and practices are the product of an evolutionary process that continuously builds upon the work of our predecessors. The field of patient advocacy is indebted to many individuals and organizations that built the foundations of our profession. Their insightful and pioneering work in crafting some of the initial principles and standards of patient advocacy has guided, inspired and provided a basis for PACB’s independent efforts.

Special reliance has been placed upon the seminal and groundbreaking work of the National Association of Healthcare Advocacy Consultants (NAHAC), the late H. Kenneth Schueler, and the Alliance of Professional Health Advocates (APHA), to whom PACB expresses its sincere gratitude.