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:

“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

“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

“Your passion and concern for this issue (Medicare Fraud and Abuse) is evident and very effective in communicating the need for vigilance among seniors.”

— Los Arcos Apartments, Poway

"In January, my doctor sent a claim to Medicare for a walking boot which I needed for a medical condition. Medicare denied the claim even though the boot was a covered item. Since the doctor was not paid, he insisted that I pay $284.85 out of pocket, which I paid, however I was sure this was not a fair practice.

I brought my case to the California Senior Medicare Patrol and Sandy Morales, Complex Case Manager, worked on the issue for several months. She was an intermediary between Medicare and my doctor and after several conversations, she was able to convince the doctor to re-submit the claim for the boot, along with the appropriate documentation indicating medical necessity.

Bottom line: in September, Medicare paid the doctor for the valid claim and the doctor reimbursed me for the full $284.85.

Thank you Sandy and Senior Medicare Patrol for being such a strong advocate for a grateful Medicare beneficiary."

— Marcy B

California Health Advocates (CHA) is an invaluable resource for our Contra Costa HICAP (SHIP) program. This organization supports HICAP statewide in numerous ways. We have used CHA for training new volunteer counselors, for providing our first-line resource materials primarily through their fantastic fact sheets, and for very important technical research as they look up applicable federal governmental regulations about very complicated matters. This latter service is greatly appreciated because those of us who work in the field are dealing with the immediate needs of clients and don’t have the time to pore through government regulations.

— Ruth AtkinHICAP Program Manager, Contra Costa County

“Thank you for coming to our class and sharing your experience with Medicare fraud. The students shared they really appreciated all you shared with them. I believe it is so important for students to get the big picture and have the correct information on current aging issues. You got them off to a good start. Thank you, again, for generously sharing your time with our students.”

— Barbara Gillogly, Ph.D., Chair Gerontology Dept., American River College, Sacramento