|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Medicare News
Medicare Gives SHIPS $30 Million in New Funds for
Local Counseling
State programs provide local personalized
counseling on health programs, insurance
April 11, 2007 - State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPS),
which grew in prominence following the funding of the Medicare drug
program, will receive $30 million in new grant funds from the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services. SHIPS provide free personalized
counseling to senior citizens and disabled persons about health
insurance and health programs.
Under the State Health Insurance Assistance
Programs (SHIPs), CMS provides funding to 54 SHIPs, including all 50
states, and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin
Islands.
SHIPs are a key part of Medicares education and
outreach efforts to educate beneficiaries about health insurance
coverage, including Medigap, Medicare Advantage options, Medicare
prescription drug coverage, and long-term care financing.
In recent
months, they assisted millions of beneficiaries with finding drug plans
suited to their individual needs.
SHIPs and other outreach partners have helped many
beneficiaries enroll in Medicare Part D, contributing to the fact that
39 million Americans with Medicare now have some sort of prescription
drug coverage, said CMS Acting Administrator Leslie V. Norwalk. With
these 2007 grant awards, SHIPs are expected to continue to achieve
measurable accomplishments that support beneficiaries in local
communities.
SHIP counselors will continue to provide enrollment
assistance to Medicare beneficiaries and offer personalized counseling
regarding all of their Medicare benefits, including new preventive
health screenings and services.
Through counseling, education and outreach,
networks of local programs are helping beneficiaries understand and
utilize their Medicare benefits. SHIPs are intended to serve
beneficiaries who want information, counseling, and assistance beyond
what is available through other CMS channels, including 1-800-MEDICARE
and
www.medicare.gov.
To help them succeed, CMS will continue to provide
training for SHIP counselors and full access to computer programs and
other support tools, such as the Plan Finder tool and Tip Sheets,
developed by CMS to help SHIPs with outreach and other functions.
CMS continues to value the important role that
SHIPs play in educating beneficiaries about Medicare, Norwalk said.
We have more than doubled our funding to SHIPs
since 2003 and look forward to working with these programs and other
community-based organizations to continue to support Medicare
beneficiaries.
SHIP grants are calculated in two parts.
The initial grant is distributed as a fixed award
of $75,000 ($25,000 to Guam and the Virgin Islands) to each of the
applicants.
The second portion is a variable sum based on the
percentage of nationwide Medicare beneficiaries who live in the state,
the proportion of the states Medicare beneficiaries to the total state
population, and the proportion of the states Medicare beneficiary
population who live in rural areas.
For a complete list of state health insurance
counseling programs, visit
www.shiptalk.org.
For more on Medicare benefits, visit
www.medicare.gov.
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
