Federal programs aid our nation’s most vulnerable, low-income Medicare beneficiaries to access assistance for health programs for which they are determined eligible. They need assistance paying for rising health care costs, but, in many cases, they are not getting that needed help.

NCOA is urging to make funding permanent for community-based organizations to conduct outreach and enrollment of low-income Medicare beneficiaries, consistent with Section 209 of several bipartisan Senate SGR bills, including the SGR Repeal and Medicare Beneficiary Access Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 1871), as well as Chairman Hatch’s 2014 bill S. 2122. This request is not to expand eligibility, but merely to improve assistance and outreach to those already eligible under current law.

Read NCOA's 2019 issue brief outlining the rationale for permanent, annual funding for Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) low-income outreach and assistance activities, to continue critical supports to vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries.