Protect Our Health Care ~ 4 Simple Actions to Take Today!
Read moreBelow is an urgent update from our partners Justice in Aging on the imminent vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and 4 important actions for today! Yesterday, the Senate took a reckless and irresponsible step towards gutting healthcare for older adults and others, and removing critical consumer protections that save lives. With Vice...
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Beware of Lead Generating Businesses Posing as Legitimate Government Agencies
Read moreSocial Security sends out letters to beneficiaries at certain times of the year. For example, in May they sent out letters to beneficiaries who may qualify for a Medicare Savings Program and/or the Medicare Part D’s low-income subsidy program, known as Extra Help. These letters are legitimate. At the same time, however, there are...
CHA Calls for Restored SHIP Funding for FY 2018
Read moreLast week, the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee marked up its FY18 bill, and among the cuts in programs that older adults rely upon was the total elimination of funding for the Medicare State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) -- this is called the Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program (HICAP) in California. With full committee...
CHA Advises on Ways to Revitalize the California Partnership for Long Term Care
Read moreBonnie Burns, our Training and Policy Specialist, provides recommendations on ways to revitalize the California Partnership for Long-Term Care and help Californians prepare for the likelihood of needing long-term care in their future.
Avoid the New Medicare Card Scam ~ Watch Our New 30-sec PSA
Read moreOur California Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) made a new 30-sec public service announcement that warns people about new Medicare card scams and where to report them. New Medicare cards will start being mailed to beneficiaries in April 2018. The cards will have new identification numbers not linked to Social Security numbers as a way...
BENEs Act Improves & Simplifies Medicare Part B Eligibility Notices & Enrollment
Read moreThe basic rules underpinning the Part B enrollment system were developed more than fifty years ago, when Medicare was first established. The Beneficiary Enrollment Notification and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act (H.R. 2575) offers long-overdue solutions to modernize and simplify Part B enrollment. Through bipartisan, low-cost reforms, the BENES Act shields people with Medicare from steep...
Senate Health Care Bill Slashes Medicaid Spending for All Populations
Read moreThe Senate’s recently released bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would drastically cut and fundamentally change our country’s Medicaid program. Under this bill, instead of Medicaid being an “open system” where federal and state spending is based on medical needs, the federal government would limit spending by only giving states a per capita...
Navigating Medicare & the Health Insurance Marketplace
Read moreMany people purchase their health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Yet when people become eligible for Medicare, there is little notification and thus much confusion on how and when to make the transition to this federal health care program. Below is some information with 3...