February 23, 2010
From the Director's Desk: Looking ahead in 2010
Since 2001 HAP has partnered with SHIPs across the country by helping build their capacity to educate, counsel, and assist Medicare beneficiaries. We understand the important role you play in helping your clients access benefits and how hard you work to resolve issues on their behalf. HAP is proud to have offered a wide range of programs and services in the areas of Medicare education, program development, and public education and policy to help SHIPs help Medicare beneficiaries.
We know that the weakened economy is profoundly affecting your programs and the clients you serve. Unfortunately, HAP is no exception. It is with great sadness that we inform you this is a time of transition for our organization. Due to significant reductions in our grant funding, HAP will no longer be able to sustain current levels of staffing, programs, and services starting April 1. But our strong belief in, and commitment to, the national SHIP network remains unchanged.
Looking forward, HAP will continue to focus on the following:
- Provide Medicare education and training materials on key issues as they arise. These issues include changes to the Medicare program as a result of existing legislation, such as MIPPA, or new reforms, such as changes to health care on a national level.
- Advocate on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries through our Troubleshooting Medicare project by identifying systemic issues affecting beneficiaries, addressing the underlying policy by making recommendations to policymakers, and equipping SHIP counselors through trainings and tools.
- Advocate for increased federal funding for SHIPs.
- Engage in public education activities to promote the critical value of SHIPs with key stakeholders, and engage in advocacy on select key issues to inform health care reform implementation.
- Share information and provide updates through periodic eAlerts, and seek your feedback to inform our work.
Existing resources and tools in the areas of Volunteer Program Development, Certification, Best Practices, and Collaborative State Projects (CSPs) will remain available on HAP's Web site for SHIPs and partners to use and customize. SHIPTools will continue to be available under a new arrangement, and will be updated to reflect the new NPR reporting requirements.
We will keep you posted on what these changes will mean for HAP. In the meantime, please feel free to e-mail or call me at 202-737-6340 with questions or feedback.
Thank you for your ongoing support of HAP. Your belief in HAP's mission, programs, and staff has provided us with tremendous opportunities — and many wonderful relationships — for which we are extremely grateful.
Sincerely,
Lee Thompson
Executive Director
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