Medicare Rights Center, Inc.

Results: The Medicare Rights Center is most effective at directly serving people with Medicare and leveraging their stories to improve the Medicare program as a whole. The organization is on track to answer at least 15,000 consumer and professional questions on its helpline this year and to develop several new toolkits and resources—for instance around transitions to Medicare from new Health Insurance Marketplaces, and how new managed care plans will affect people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid—enabling millions of Americans to find answers to their Medicare questions. Medicare Rights, in coalition with other state and national organizations, has in recent years achieved significant policy victories for people with Medicare, including the elimination of the asset test and face-to-face interview requirement for low-income New Yorkers applying for Medicare public benefits and improving the clarity of educational and marketing materials developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and health insurance plans. Among other current priorities, Medicare Rights continues to advocate reforms that would avoid new costs from being shifted to Medicare beneficiaries, to improve the appeals process for people with Medicare who have been denied coverage for a health care service or medication, and to make new managed care models for the most vulnerable Medicare- and Medicaid-eligible individuals more responsive to their unique needs.

Programs: Helplines: last year, medicare rights' expert staff and corps of volunteers answered nearly 15,000 questions on its national english- and spanish-language helplines for people with medicare, their families, and the professionals serving them.

educational outreach: last year, medicare rights' expert print and online resources (e. G. , medicare interactive at www. Medicareinteractive. Org, medicare rights university at www. Medicarerightsuniversity. Org), trainings, and presentations reached 1. 5+ million individuals with needed support, helping them find answers to their medicare questions and access needed health services and medicines.

enrollment services: last year, medicare rights' direct enrollment work resulted in more than $6 million in savings to older adults, people with disabilities, and their families.

policy: last year, medicare rights and its policy partners led hundreds of presentations to translate medicare policy into consumer-friendly language and circulated regular newsletters to keep people with medicare and those serving them updated on medicare changes; these newsletters reach an estimated 70,000 readers each month. Medicare rights also carried the stories of the clients it serves to meetings with policymakers and other medicare stakeholders in new york and washington, dc.