Inside Medicare Rights

SUMMER 2011 InsideMedicareRights Medicare consumers with limited incomes. Medicaid helps FROM THE DESK OF pay for the out-of-pocket costs associated with Medicare and provides critical coverage for long-term care. JOE BAKER As the debate over deficit reduction has intensified, we have worked to get the word out through the media and through our weekly policy newsletter, Medicare Watch. We his spring, as the conversation have also released a series of fact sheets to cut through the Tamong policymakers in rhetoric and pinpoint what deficit-reduction proposals Washington shifted to deficit would mean for people with Medicare. I invite you to read reduction, we at the Medicare Rights our fact sheets: Center immediately began working to • Painting a Grim Picture: Deficit-Reduction ensure that the voices of people with Proposals that Hurt People with Medicare Medicare were heard. Deficit (ow.ly/4QFWH) reduction is an important topic with • Medicare and Medicaid: Essential Partners serious implications for the Medicare for Older Americans and People with program, and our goal is simple: to Disabilities (ow.ly/4QFY0) preserve Medicare for the people who • Decoding the 2012 House Budget Resolution rely on it, today and in the future. While we understand (ow.ly/4QFYS) the importance of reducing the deficit, we believe the solution is not to cut Medicare, but to tackle the root of the I also answered questions about the deficit-reduction problem: rising costs across the entire health care sector. debate for a CNN.com blog. You can read my answers at Every day we hear from people who can’t afford to pay ow.ly/4VXp4. for their health care. Half of all people with Medicare have In the coming months, we will continue to monitor the incomes of $20,000 or less per year, and proposals that debate over deficit reduction. We pledge to speak out would convert Medicare into a voucher program or against proposals that balance the budget on the backs of introduce caps on spending would unfairly place the older adults and people with disabilities, and to speak up burden on these consumers. We are equally concerned to preserve the health coverage on which they rely. about proposals that cut Medicaid, a vital lifeline for New Resource for Health Care Professionals: Medicare Rights University Need to stay current on all things Medicare? Try a subscription to Medicare Rights University. This comprehensive training solution features traditional, webinar and video courses to help you understand Medicare and keep up to speed on Medicare changes, benefits and options. Subscribe today at www.medicarerightsuniversity.org/members-page. and public benefits, Hamilton Madison professionals began Program Update: assisting clients with questions about these topics. With the Community Partners Medicare Rights Center’s help, staff members have also improved their ability to track the outcomes of counseling sessions; they are now using a spreadsheet that includes the hrough the Community Partners program, led by Fred date of the benefit application, the date it was submitted to Riccardi, MSW, the Medicare Rights Center trains the Medicare Rights for vetting and the acceptance status. Tstaff members of partner organizations to provide Medicare Since October, professionals from the Hospital for Special counseling and connect people with limited incomes to Surgery (HSS) have attended five Medicare Rights trainings, programs that can help them afford their health care. The including sessions on low-income programs, Medicare Part D program is grounded in a community-driven model and and health reform. Juliette Kleinman, manager of the empowers sites that serve older adults to offer an increased VOICES 60+ program at HSS, said: level of services themselves. To date, the program is helping professionals at four New York City sites (Isabella Geriatric “Medicare Rights Center has been the go-to resource Resource Center, Hamilton Madison House, Hospital for for VOICES 60+ staff, volunteers and patients when Special Surgery and New York Legal Assistance Group) to we have questions about Medicare and insurance counsel their own clients on health reform and other topics issues. We rely on them for the most updated and to help them enroll in an array of public benefits. information, and their team is always ready to help By developing the skills of multiple on-site professionals, with any of our insurance challenges. It’s been an Medicare Rights enables its partners to sustain and track ongoing pleasure working with Medicare Rights Medicare enrollment and counseling work beyond the Center, and we hope our partnership continues.” intensive training period. To date, the Community Partners program has trained more than 20 professionals at partner Medicare Rights looks forward to sustaining and sites on a range of Medicare topics. Five professionals from expanding the Community Partners model in the months Isabella have received training and support from Medicare ahead. We are grateful to the Altman Foundation, the Rights and have participated in trainings on health reform, Blanche T. Enders Charitable Trust, the New York public benefits and private plans. Medicare Rights has further Community Trust and the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels developed the expertise of Isabella professionals by providing Foundation for supporting this new initiative. support by telephone. Through the Community Partners program, Isabella has built the systems and expertise necessary to secure a Benefits Enrollment Center grant from the National Council on Aging—one of just 10 awards nationwide in 2011. With this By the Numbers two-year support, Isabella will expand its counseling, screening and enrollment work with clients, and will further hone its ability to track and report the outcomes of counseling Last year, our volunteers and sessions. At Hamilton Madison House, on-site professionals are staff secured $4 million in benefits also gaining the skills to carry out enrollment and counseling work beyond the grant period. In total, ten Hamilton for our clients. Madison professionals have received training from Medicare Rights. After completing trainings on Medicare private plans Breakfast Conversation On May 24 in New York City, Medicare Rights held a breakfast conversation titled “Saving or Shredding the Safety Net: Medicare, Deficit-Reduction, and Implications for Older and Disabled Adults, their Families, and the Nation.” Board members Bruce Vladeck, Ph.D., and Theodore Marmor, Ph.D., and President Joe Baker led the conversation, which touched on key points in proposed deficit-reduction proposals and explored the real issues at stake as policymakers consider the future of the Medicare program. Attendees represented a cross-section of the Medicare Rights community, including donors, foundation staff and others. Left to right: Joe Baker, Bruce Vladeck and Theodore Marmor Seniors Out Speaking in Recognized for Service: he Medicare Rights Center’s hallmark educational Lois Steinberg program is Seniors Out Speaking on Medicare (SOS), in Twhich volunteers help their friends and neighbors understand Medicare and related health insurance coverage. The SOS ois Steinberg, Ph.D., will be model builds camaraderie among older adults, strengthens Lstepping down at the end of community-based organizations, and encourages participants May as Westchester Program to become health care advocates for themselves and for their Director at the Medicare peers. Rights Center. During her The flagship SOS program, the Medicare Minute, is a tenure at Medicare Rights, she short, engaging presentation on a timely Medicare topic that developed and launched is conducted at local sites on a monthly basis. Medicare Seniors Out Speaking on Rights has been working to expand SOS Medicare Minutes Medicare (SOS), an award- through new partnerships with SOS host organizations across winning program that trains the country. Each month, older volunteers from an SOS host and mobilizes volunteers to organization receive and discuss a new Medicare Minute, educate their peers about Medicare issues. Dr. Steinberg which they then present at local sites, offering valuable was recognized for service at a volunteer luncheon on information to their peers and building capacity at their May 12. organization. Medicare Rights wishes her well as she begins this We are happy to announce that SOS Medicare Minutes new chapter in her life. are currently being led by SOS volunteers in several New York locations (Westchester County, New York City and Long York. Medicare Rights is grateful to the Atlantic Island), New Jersey, Maryland and Kansas. In addition, new Philanthropies, the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation, the programs are scheduled to launch in Alabama, Florida, Jacob & Valeria Langeloth Foundation, the Public Welfare Wisconsin and Maine. Foundation and the Isaac H. Tuttle Fund for supporting this The SOS program was developed by Lois Steinberg, program over the years. Ph.D., and was piloted in 2001 in Westchester County, New Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon in Westchester On May 12, the Medicare Rights Center’s Seniors Out Speaking (SOS) program in Westchester County, New York held its annual volunteer luncheon, which honored over 80 dedicated volunteers. Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker spoke to the enthusiasm and perseverance of both the volunteers and the leadership of SOS, a program that has been helping people with Medicare for a decade. Volunteers Walter Lilling and Grant Liang Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon in New York City On May 19,

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