In October's Issue:
HAP HAPpenings
- Spotlight on HAP: AEP Tools and Support
- 2010 AEP Toolkit: AEP Resources from HAP and Others
- Need Quick Answers to AEP Questions?
- New Best Practice! "Cross-Border" Training: A Unique Partnership Between the Colorado and Utah SHIPs
- SHIPTools Welcomes Illinois!
- New SHIPTools Videos to Help SHIPs during the AEP
- More on Troubleshooting Medicare
- Recap of September Conference Call: More Strategies and Tools to Help QMB Clients
- New Volunteer Tools to Help with AEP
CMS News
- New DMEPOS Supplier Enrollment Rules Are Now in Effect
- CMS Tells MA Organizations to Stop Misleading Mailings to MA Plan Enrollees
Interesting Items
- Opportunity for Beneficiaries to Access Food Stamps
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HAP HAPpenings
Spotlight on HAP: AEP Tools and Support
HAP has partnered with SHIPs across the country since 2001 to help build their capacity to educate, counsel, and assist Medicare beneficiaries. We understand the important role of SHIPs in helping Medicare beneficiaries access benefits, and how hard you work to resolve issues. HAP offers programs and services in Medicare education, program development, and public education and policy that are designed to help SHIPs meet this mission.
You may already be familiar with HAP's Medicare education tools and resources, but did you know that we also release a special Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) Toolkit designed especially for SHIPS? It’s full of practical information that counselors can use to educate and assist clients. This year's AEP Toolkit contains our SHIP Resource Guides, including Medicare Basics, Medicare Advantage, and Part D as well as resources on topics ranging from cost-sharing to the low-income subsidy (LIS), and everything in between.
HAP is a project of Families USA, a nonprofit organization, and is funded by private foundations.
2010 AEP Toolkit: AEP Resources from HAP and Others
HAP is pleased to announce that the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) Toolkit is updated for 2010 and ready for your use! The toolkit is a collection of AEP tools and resources that are geared to help your SHIP prepare for the upcoming enrollment period. In the toolkit, you'll find resources in the following categories:
- Cost-Sharing
- Enrollment and Disenrollment
- Formulary and Transition
- Low-Income Subsidy (LIS)
- Marketing
- Resources from the SHIP Network
- Other AEP Resources from CMS, SSA, and partner organizations
Be on the lookout for the latest versions of HAP’s three SHIP Resource Guides, which will be released soon with the 2010 updates. The three guides cover Medicare Basics, Medicare Advantage, and Part D. Designed to be a resource for SHIP trainers and counselors alike, the Resource Guides contain counseling tips, links to resources, abundant examples of how Medicare applies in particular situations, and samples of Medicare-relevant forms that can serve as a quick reference guide for SHIP counselors.
If you have suggestions for additional tools, or feedback on any of HAP's current materials, please e-mail us.
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New Best Practice! |
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"Cross-Border" Training:
A Unique Partnership Between the Colorado and Utah SHIPs
For many SHIPs, training staff and volunteers can be a challenge. It takes time, money, and travel. This challenge can be even greater for SHIPs located in large, rural states where it's often difficult to offer trainings that reach all corners of the state. To address this issue, two SHIPs recently began working together to offer joint training for their staff and volunteers.
In this month's Best Practice, Colorado SHIP Director Liz Tredennick describes how a wonderful offer from Utah SHIP Director Darren Hotton led them to partner on a "cross-border" training initiative. Read the Q&A to discover what they're doing and learn from their experiences.
For more tools and resources on volunteer training, recruitment, management, and certification, check out the Volunteer Program Development section of our Web site. Also, visit HAP's Best Practice Resource Center to learn about other SHIP Best Practices that may complement your current efforts.
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Share the Issues Your Clients
Encounter during AEP
HAP's Issue Log in the Troubleshooting Medicare project is designed to help SHIPs capture the systemic and persistent issues affecting their clients. SHIPs can use the Issue Log to record and share information about a particular issue experienced by clients during the Annual Election Period (AEP), track client issues over time, and learn about the issues that other counselors are seeing in the field.
Please contact SHIPhelp with your name, organization, role, county, and state to receive a username and password and to begin logging issues!
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Need Quick Answers to AEP Questions?
Don't forget that HAP's SHIPhelp program can provide customized answers to your AEP questions in order to better assist beneficiaries. Responses are research-based and provide references to specific authority language to help SHIPs access the original sources for documentation purposes or build on current knowledge. For more information, visit our Web site, or contact us now with your questions.
HAP looks forward to supporting you through the AEP!
SHIPTools Welcomes Illinois!
HAP is pleased to welcome the Illinois SHIP program to the SHIPTools family. Illinois is using SHIPTools as part of their training and certification program.
For more information on SHIPTools, HAP's customizable web-based management system designed specifically for SHIPs, visit the SHIPTools Web page. You can preview SHIPTools by contacting us for a temporary username and password.
New SHIPTools Videos to Help SHIPs during the AEP
SHIPTools has developed three new videos to help you plan your time and resources during the AEP. Note: You will need to have Flash installed to view these videos.
For more technology tools that can help your SHIP, visit the HAPSavers Web page, where you'll find practical advice on topics such as making a video or hosting a Webinar.
More on Troubleshooting Medicare
HAP believes that the experiences and expertise of the SHIP community represent an important voice in the Medicare program — and we are committed to bringing that perspective to decisionmaker audiences. You have always been champions on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, and we are proud to work in support of your priorities. As part of the Troubleshooting Medicare project, which is designed to help improve the Medicare program by identifying persistent and systemic issues that affect beneficiaries across the country, you told us that helping to move and extend the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) would provide beneficiaries with more time to make informed decisions about their health care.
We are working to inform and educate Congress on the need to move up the AEP by several weeks and eliminate the Open Enrollment Period (OEP). We will continue to provide you with updates on our progress. In the meantime, check out the newly launched Public Education and Policy section of our Web site for more information on HAP's activities available via HAP's homepage.
To learn how you can get involved in public education activities, contact us at SHIPhelp@hapnetwork.org.
Recap of September Conference Call:
More Strategies and Tools to Help QMB Clients
Over the last several months, HAP has received considerable feedback from the SHIP community on the topic of the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program and Medicare cost-sharing. September's conference call, More Strategies and Tools to Help QMB Clients, focused on SHIPs sharing their experiences on actions they’ve taken at the state and local level to assist their clients enrolled in the QMB program.
HAP has collected resources and tools on the September Conference Call page, including a link to the conference call audio recording, as well as the updated SHIP Shout Out.
In the meantime, we ask that you continue to bring us your recommendations and feedback to help ensure that individuals enrolled in the QMB program have access to the full benefits to which they are entitled.
New Volunteer Tools to Help with AEP
Are you recruiting new volunteers to help during the AEP? If so, use these screening tools to find the right volunteers for your SHIP!
These worksheets include sample questions you can ask potential volunteers to help you decide whether they are a good fit for your program. The tools were developed as part of the Colorado and Virginia Collaborative State Projects (CSPs). The CSPs are 12-month, intensive partnerships designed to strengthen the existing capacities and initiatives of the SHIPs.
For more tools and resources on volunteer training, recruitment, management, and certification, check out HAP's Volunteer Program Development section of our Web site.
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CMS News
New DMEPOS Supplier Enrollment Rules Are Now in Effect
CMS required suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) to obtain accreditation from an approved organization by October 1 and obtain a surety bond by October 2 in order to receive or continue their Medicare billing privileges. CMS now requires accreditation and bonding for DMEPOS suppliers as conditions of enrolling as Medicare providers with CMS’s National Supplier Clearinghouse. These supplier enrollment requirements are designed to help prevent fraud and to prepare for the first round of rebidding in Medicare’s competitive bidding program. The bonding requirement means that suppliers must have a surety bond worth $50,000 to insure against improper and potentially fraudulent payments. As of October 1, more than 50,000 suppliers — over 70 percent of the total — had been accredited.
CMS encouraged suppliers that have not met the accreditation and enrollment requirements to notify their beneficiaries so they can find another supplier. CMS also advised Medicare beneficiaries to ask their suppliers if they are approved by Medicare to make sure that Medicare will pay their claims for equipment and supplies. Beneficiaries can find information about participating providers who accept assignment for everyone on the Medicare Supplier Directory at www.medicare.gov.
CMS Tells MA Organizations to Stop Misleading Mailings to MA Plan Enrollees
CMS sent a memo on September 21 to all Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations instructing them to discontinue mailings and remove materials from their Web sites that allege "that current health care reform legislation affecting Medicare could hurt seniors and disabled individuals who could lose important benefits and services as a result of the legislation." The memo expressed concern about recent mailings from some companies that appear to convey program information about an individual’s benefits but instead provides misleading opinions about the impact of health reform legislation on the MA program itself.
Humana was one plan that CMS singled out for sending potentially misleading materials to Medicare beneficiaries. In its letter to the plan, CMS advised that messages from the company sent in an envelope marked "important information about your Medicare Advantage plan — open today!" may violate CMS guidance and federal law. CMS is investigating whether these practices violate HIPAA and other federal statutes by inappropriately using lists of Medicare enrollees for unauthorized purposes.
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Interesting Items
Opportunity for Beneficiaries to Access Food Stamps
Low-income seniors and people with disabilities may not be accessing all of the benefits they are entitled to, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) September 2009 report, "Upcoming Medicare Change Is an Opportunity to Enroll Eligible Low-income Seniors in Food Stamps." The report discusses how enhanced outreach requirements to beneficiaries who are eligible for the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy (LIS) and Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) also means new opportunities to reach beneficiaries also eligible for food stamps and other benefits.
SHIP programs that currently partner with their state Medicaid programs and screen for the food stamp benefit may want to ask if their state has any plans to screen for additional benefits during the LIS/MSP data exchange process. Download the report to learn more.
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