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:

“We consider the CHA Fact Sheets a staple, not only of of our service delivery, but also of our new-counselor training. The Fact Sheets are well-written, clear and complete, and a very helpful tool when explaining Medicare's complex features to beneficiaries. The CHA Fact Sheets are updated in a timely manner, too, making their website the go-to-resource for accurate information.”

— Margaret ReillyProgram Manager, HICAP Services of Northern California, West Sacramento

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

“…I just want to say thank you for all the work that California Health Advocates does to stop letting long-term care insurance companies write policies that are not fair to the public. If I had not found Bonnie Burns… I would have given up a long time ago. I am so thankful.”

— Sharon D.

“Thank you again for being our guest speaker…. The information you gave regarding Medicare fraud was both enlightening and frightening. We are all aware of the fraud perpetuated by unscrupulous parties, but I had no idea of the scope and organization the fraud; especially involving the ethnic communities. I would like to call on you to speak at other community meetings; I will be in touch!”

— Alex E, Co-chairCommunity Housing Coalition, California Adult and Aging Commission

"I am 72 years old, receiving SSB as my sole source of income. Starting June 2018, I will be receiving Medicare benefits, in addition to basic Medical coverage. Your website provided me with all the necessary information I needed, in order to understand how Medicare-Medical work together to maximize my benefits. Thank you so much...!!!"

“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