FAQs

1. How is HAP funded?

HAP is a non-profit organization that is funded by three national foundations that support aging programs. The significant investments of these foundations has allowed HAP to partner with SHIPs to enhance their capacity to serve Medicare beneficiaries by providing an array of services, primarily in the areas of program development and Medicare education. The support of these foundations has allowed HAP to provide many of its services for free to the SHIP network—a critical but under-funded network.

The primary foundation that supports HAP is requiring HAP to diversify its funding base in order to become a self-sustaining organization in the long-term. Consequently, HAP is currently seeking funding from other foundations, including national and local foundations, as well as from other sources, including SHIPs, to leverage the significant investment that the three foundations have already made in HAP and the SHIP network.

2. What does HAP mean by business development?

HAP has created a position (Director of Business Development) to develop replicable and sustainable products and services to support our capacity building initiatives and bring continued investment into the SHIP network. In an ideal world, HAP would be able to make all of its products available to the SHIP network for free. However, in recent years, national philanthropy has placed increasing emphasis on supporting programs that are not dependent on philanthropy for their primary sources of revenue. Therefore, HAP is trying to leverage resources through existing and new partners while continuing to pursue philanthropy to help subsidize the costs of present and future services so that as many SHIPs as possible can use them if they so choose. To the extent that it is feasible for both HAP and SHIPs, HAP is developing fee-for-service products that require SHIPs to pay for a portion of the costs necessary to provideing the service effectively and efficiently. These services, which largely include SHIPTools and trainings, are resource intensive and are highly customized to meet the specific needs of a SHIP.

3. Why is HAP charging SHIPs for some of its services?

HAP has always offered a range of services, such as trainings, to the SHIP network for a fee. HAP is making efforts to better highlight its fee-based services while exploring SHIP demand for present and future fee-for-service  products. As a non-profit organization, HAP will continue to re-invest any money earned into helping SHIPs best serve Medicare beneficiaries.

Other HAP services, such as our technical assistance, monthly conference calls, and eNewsletter, are free to SHIPs and their partners.

4. What is the relationship between the increase in federal funding for the SHIPs and HAP's fee-based services?

Since its inception, HAP has advocated for increased and sustainable funding from the federal government for the SHIP network because we believe the SHIP network is a critical, yet severely under-funded resource for Medicare beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of this advocacy has been a perception by some that HAP only advocates for increases in SHIP funding to benefit HAP. This perception is not accurate as demonstrated by our efforts to explore a fee-based pricing model in which HAP subsidizes a significant portion of the cost in the hopes of enabling more SHIPs to access our fee-based  services.

While we will continue to advocate on behalf of the SHIP network for increased funding, we must also explore various avenues to become a self-sustaining organization, as required by our funders. As a non-profit organization, we will continue to reinvest any money earned into helping SHIPs best serve Medicare consumers.

5. How are the costs of trainings determined?

HAP is exploring a pricing strategy in which SHIPs are asked to pay a portion of the cost associated with developing and delivering a training, while HAP subsidizes a significant portion of  the remaining cost. In the hopes of meeting the needs of as many SHIPs as possible, HAP does not ask SHIPs to cover the full cost of creating and delivering such a highly customized service.

6. How is the cost to implement and use SHIPTools determined?

As with our trainings, HAP is exploring a pricing strategy in which SHIPs are asked to pay a portion of the cost associated with implementing and using SHIPTools, while HAP subsidizes a significant portion of the remaining cost. In the hopes of meeting the needs of as many SHIPs as possible, HAP does not ask SHIPs to cover the full cost of creating and delivering a highly customized service.

The cost to implement and use SHIPTools is largely dependent on the number of Medicare beneficiaries in a state. Based on our experiences, the number of Medicare beneficiaries in a state, which is often indicative of the number of SHIP personnel in a state, corresponds to the amount of time and resources required to develop and deliver the service. We believe that this pricing strategy attempts to take into account HAP's mission of making services as widely available as possible, recognizing the enormous diversity between programs.