About Us

About California Health Advocates

Founded in 1997, California Health Advocates is the leading Medicare advocacy and education non-profit in California. We receive financial support from private and public organizations. See our grantors and sponsors, meet our staff, read articles mentioning CHA, or read about our first 10 years. Our work includes:

Advocacy & Policy

Advocacy: Advocating on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries and their families, we target federal and state level legislators and their staff through media and educational campaigns. We also build and lead coalitions of strategic partners concerned with Medicare-related issues, such as the California Medicare Coalition.

Policy: As the premiere watchdog organization for Medicare in California, we conduct public policy research to support improved rights and protections of Medicare beneficiaries and their families. We frequently partner with other statewide and national Medicare organizations to promote policies that positively impact Medicare.

See our Press Releases and Press Mentions.

Education

We provide accurate and up-to-date Medicare information for both Medicare beneficiaries and their families — and the, advocates and providers who serve them.

For California beneficiaries and their families: Our website provides Medicare information organized by topic, with English and Spanish podcasts available in several sections. We also support the state’s Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program (HICAP) who work directly one-on-one with California’s Medicare population through our trainings, technical assistance and educational materials.

For Medicare professionals: We provide current Medicare information and education through this website, our e-newsletter, blog articles, policy briefs and our widely-used fact sheets concerning the Medicare’s most pressing issues, all available in the For Professionals section of our website. Our expert staff trainers also provide educational workshops, training and consultation to professionals, including HICAP counselors and staff on comprehensive Medicare topics and policy issues.

Contact Us

Learn about the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) project and how SMP counselors can help you resolve fraud related questions and provide education on Medicare fraud prevention.

Send Us Your Comments

Do you have comments or concerns about your Medicare coverage? Issues regarding getting your needed prescriptions from your Part D plan, or a Medicare Advantage plan representative’s marketing practices? Let us know at comments@cahealthadvocates.org.

Hearing how Medicare is working for you is an important part of our advocacy efforts to make sure Medicare works well for all beneficiaries. Your comments help guide our recommendations with key state and national policy makers.

Contributing to Our Work

We seek tax-deductible contributions and sponsors to support our high quality educational events and publications. We are a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity, and donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

We’re listed with GuideStar. You may donate online or send a donation to:

California Health Advocates
5380 Elvas Avenue, Suite 221
Sacramento CA 95819

Read Our Testimonials:

“I got these (Medicare fraud alert) flyers and am thrilled to have them in so many languages. I serve a large Russian and Korean population and my folks grabbed these flyers up and were so appreciate to have them in their languages. Thanks so much for your efforts in helping us keep our seniors informed and aware!”

— Resident Service CoordinatorAlameda County

“The CHA fact sheets are an invaluable tool for our HICAP in terms of training both new and experienced volunteers and staff, including agency staff from other programs, on a variety of topics related to Medicare and long-term care insurance. We also utilize these fact sheets when providing in-service trainings to other agencies and providers serving older adults and people with disabilities. In addition, our counselors rely on them when providing one-on-one counseling to Medicare beneficiaries or to persons who hold or are interested in long-term care insurance policies. Counselors use the fact sheets to help beneficiaries understand their options in specific circumstances, such as those who may be eligible for limited income programs, veterans, and/or those who are still working and have other coverage. In a typical year, we can approximate that we use somewhere between 10,000-20,000 of the CHA fact sheets. These fact sheets are usually the first materials to be updated when there are changes that need to be made and they are absolutely critical in helping our HICAP to fulfill our mission of educating and providing advocacy to Medicare beneficiaries. Many thanks for all that you do!”

— Debbie ReedHICAP Program Manager, Santa Cruz/San Benito Counties

“We feel so lucky to have found the services of CHA. Without your advocacy efforts, we would have just accepted the denial from my long-term care insurance company. Because of your efforts, we received $9,386.87. Bonnie, we are so thankful there are people like you in this crazy world of health care. It shouldn't be this hard to provide care for our elderly, especially when an insurance policy has been purchased. I have shared our experience with my peers, friends and family. I highly recommend CHA and their advocacy services.”

— The A. Family, Sacramento

“The value of the CHA Fact sheets to our HICAP program is huge. Counselors can get current information and data figures, the fact sheets are easy to read, finding the answers needed is easy with the wonderful index. The fact sheets also help our Medicare clients by giving them information they can rely on to be correct and current and written in an manner they can understand. Our clients like to have something in hand to remind them of all the information they just heard and the fact sheets fit that bill perfectly.”

— Debbie ShallyHICAP Program Manager, Sonora

“New to Medicare clients are often quite articulate and organized but overwhelmed with all the advertising material they receive in the mail. When I show them the fact sheets, it's as if the heavens opened up. The charts and fact sheets are wonderful tools that help clarify and make sense of all the complicated details surrounding Medicare.”

— Alameda County HICAP Counselor

“CHA’s fact sheets are an indispensable component to our volunteer training and resource reference material. Because they are so well written and easy to understand, we give them to our clients as back up to our counseling sessions. We also display a variety of fact sheets at the various community outreach events that we participate in. We can always rely on CHA fact sheets to be up-to-date and accurate.”

— Tatiana Fassieux,Program Manager, Butte County HICAP – a program of PASSAGES