The Alliance provides Medicare advocates with a collaborative network to share resources, best practices, and developments of import to Medicare beneficiaries throughout the country. The Alliance is supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation.
Project Summary and Goals
With the support of the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Center for Medicare Advocacy continues to develop and lead a nationwide alliance of Medicare advocates public interest programs and organizations. Through a series of telephone conference calls and related collaborative support, we hope to enhance advocates' knowledge of Medicare coverage and increase successful Medicare appeals and efforts at systemic change. Alliance calls will be held on an "every-other-month" basis and more frequently if needed.
The calls provide public interest advocates with the opportunity to pose questions, discuss complex and ongoing advocacy concerns, and use the Center's expertise and the collective wisdom of Alliance participants to problem-solve. Senior Center for Medicare Advocacy attorneys will host the calls, and on each call will obtain further suggestions from participants about particular Medicare coverage and appeal topics of concern. Based on that input, the Center will prepare a short practice-oriented memorandum and guided discussion for the following month's call. Such topics might include how to deal with Medicare's erroneous improvement, chronic and stable standards; how to contest a Part B income-based premium; and tips for appealing denials of Medicare home health coverage.
Project Components:
- Conference calls for advocates every other month and more frequently if needed;
- Expert analysis and memoranda about Medicare coverage and appeals;
- Practice Tip Memoranda on specific topics for use in case evaluation and development;
- Simplified coverage screens for beneficiaries.
Project Coordination
Center for Medicare Advocacy attorney David Lipschutz leads the Medicare Advocates Alliance calls. For further information about this project or to join the Alliance, please contact Attorney Lipschutz in the Center's Washington, DC office at 202-293-5760 or Matthew Shepard in the Center's Connecticut office at 860-456-7790.