About Us - Testimonials

Reprinted below are letters of support or praise for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, its personnel, its products and its services. If you would like to provide us with comments of your own, please click HERE.

"The Center for Medicare Advocacy is the most experienced Medicare advocacy organization in the nation. For more than 20 years I have relied on the Center for the most up-to-date information and effective help for my constituents. The Center for Medicare Advocacy is an invaluable resource for anyone sorting through the complexities of Medicare or concerned about this critically important program's future."

Click HERE to view a .PDF file of a letter of thanks written by Representative Nancy Pelosi (D. Cal.) Click HERE if you need to download a free Adobe Acrobat© PDF viewer.

I [would like to express] my high regard for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, Judy Stein - the Director, and her staff. This is a group of individuals who are deeply immersed in their efforts to assist older adults and persons with disabilities. They are often far too busy - and maybe even too humble - to advertise their accomplishments - and there have been many - to the wider public.

For example how many of us had truly heard of the home health care maximization project until a few months ago. And that due to their effectiveness they have returned approximately 140 million dollars to the State Medicaid budget in the past ten years or so.

Some of you also might not be aware of the Center for Medicare Advocacy’s national reputation. Not only with the maximization project of which other states have looked to replicate, but for their ability to challenge the failure of the Medicare system to provide proper coverage, due process, and rights of appeal. They have served as lead council in numerous federal class action suits.

In nearly a decade working in this field, I have come to know the Center as a model organization. One we would hope others would emulate.

They bring a sense of compassion to their work, motivated by an intense commitment to serve those who might otherwise be forgotten. They are highly professional and at the same time very collegial. Within the organization, they live by principles of teamwork and celebrate the efforts of all its members. They are also an excellent community partner.

In the complicated maze of Medicare and health care coverage - the Center seeks to simplify the issues and protect basic rights.

As Medicare is moving toward "modernization" including a prescription drug benefit - the role for the Center will only become more critical.

We should all view the Center for Medicare Advocacy as one of Connecticut’s treasures - one that must be preserved.

Julie Evans Starr
Executive Director of the State Commission on Aging for the State of Connecticut

As State Director for AARP Connecticut, I’m writing to let you know how valuable the services you provide have been to Connecticut seniors and their families. The educational materials and training that the Center provides to families and providers is first rate. Even more important, the legal advocacy that you provide to Medicare beneficiaries helps ensure that they receive the services they need and the financial support to which they are entitled.

AARP Connecticut also has appreciated your partnership and support on a number of initiatives impacting older adults, including our over 600,000 AARP members in Connecticut.

Thank you and your staff for all that you do. AARP Connecticut supports your efforts to secure the ongoing funding necessary to continue this critical and important work.

The Connecticut Geriatrics Society represents over 150 geriatricians and health care professionals in Connecticut committed to high quality care for older adults and has had extensive experience working with the Center for Medicare Advocacy based in Willimantic, CT.

As President of the Connecticut Geriatrics Society, and as Director of Geriatric Medicine at Stamford Health System, I have personally referred a number of older adults and their families to the Center for Medicare Advocacy and have found their advocacy for the needs of Medicare beneficiaries to be professional, effective, and important in helping ensure funding for needed covered services. Feedback from patients and families has been most positive regarding the work of the Center.

As a professional physician-led organization committed to high quality care for older adults, we strongly recommend that you ensure that there is ongoing funding for the Center for Medicare Advocacy and an ongoing commitment to legal advocacy for Connecticut’s Medicare beneficiaries. Their work is critical and the Center for Medicare Advocacy should be strongly supported.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this issue and to helping ensure that the needs of Connecticut’s older adults are met.

It has been a pleasure to work with the Center for Medicare Advocacy over the last many years.

The Center has a significant history of providing excellent services to CT’s elderly. Your work is highly professional and done with compassion.

Our contractual relationship with the Center has been extremely positive. Your attention to programmatic and fiscal details is outstanding.

The Center operates as a proven specialist in all Medicare issues and your work has brought comfort and relief to CT’s elders who have experienced difficulties in understanding Medicare and resolving their issues.

The Center was nominated by Elderly Services in 1997 and was subsequently honored with selection for the Health Care Financing Administration’s Beneficiary Services Certificate of Merit - a well deserved honor which recognizes the outstanding work done by the Center.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy is a wonderful resource for my Title III B providers to use when they run into difficult Medicare issues with clients. Judy Stein and her staff are personable and so knowledgeable, I have no hesitation assuring my providers that they can rely on the expertise of the Center.

As a Legal Services Developer responsible for ensuring that the attorneys and paralegals providing legal services to seniors for the Georgia ELAP have Medicare knowledge, the first place I go is the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Each time I have brought attorneys from the Center to Georgia to conduct training the results have been rewarding. The participants always come away confident in the instruction they received and really pleased with the instructors. The best thing about the Center is that they tell you about what they’ve already tried and know to be true.

Natalie Thomas
Attorney at Law
State Legal Services Developer, Georgia Division of Aging Services

Judy [Judith Stein, Executive Director of the Center, -ed.], you have been an enormous help and constant source of support to me over the years. I was so thrilled when you became president of NAELA. I knew you would be wonderful and a tremendous help to Medicare beneficiaries and advocates.

As both a former Medicare advocate and now as a state Legal Services Developer, I have learned to trust and depend upon your professional advice and technical assistance. If there is anything I can do, please just let me know. I would be happy to help in any way I can.

Congratulations for all you're doing, and thanks. FYI, we've placed a note about the Center for Medicare Advocacy on the "Recent Elder Rights & Legal Issues" section of our site, under the March 17th notes, with a direct link to your site.

Keep up the excellent work, as I know you will. [At least a few of us think there should be advocacy on these issues.]

(From two messages regarding our Weekly Alert)

I thank you for your continued support with the wonderful “CMA Alerts.”... What a great service you provide!... Currently, you are my only reliable source of information. I do go on the Medicare website but you have to dig to get the information and then “you” the reader have to put it in a concise format to use with beneficiaries. Thank you again for the sharing of WONDERFUL INFORMATION... You are the greatest!!... If I knew wealthy people, I would encourage them to donate to CMA on a regular basis. Your services are invaluable... Thanks again—don’t take me off your mailing list ever!!!!

Lydia H. Baker, Coordinator
Medicare/Health Insurance Assistance Program
Pima Council on Aging

Thank you so much to you and the entire staff for this extraordinary service of emailing comprehensive authoritative Medicare news... it is wonderful to have such reliable info.

Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your Alerts and latest news. It helps me keep our seniors up to date. Thank you so much.

I use this website to stay current on Medicare for my work. The Center was invaluable when I worked with them while in Connecticut and I stay connected to Medicare through this website.

I've been preparing a talk I have to give on ... oncology reimbursement through Medicare. In preparing over the weekend, I would do searches on Web and always came back your Center's web site. Great one and I'll use as a resource for my audience to have if they have some general questions about Medicare.

Lisa H.
Medical Writing Director

... If it had not been for Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. ... I don't think I could have gotten thru some of this Medicare stuff. I started receiving the Weekly Alerts a year or more ago before I was even thinking about eligibility for Medicare. I was reading much of the information which in some cases was way over my head but in some cases it was not. The value of the information being disseminated was just so incredible that I was not realizing how superb and valuable the information would be to me at a later time when I finally became Medicare eligible this month. In addition, I received responses from Patricia Nemore to enable me to get thru what probably could be called a minor issue but to me it was very major at the time. And for all of this I truly wish to Thank You all for your kindness and caring for all Medicare Recipients. I think the Center for Medicare Advocacy is vital to the elderly and all Medicare recipients.

Thank you so much for the work you do for Medicare beneficiaries. Traditional Medicare has served me well for 17 years and I don't want to see any changes to the current program in exchange for the skimpy drug benefit in S.1. and H.R.1. I am most grateful to have read Center News, Summer 2003, "The Truth About The Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation". As a result, I wrote to both my Congressman and Senator expressing my OPPOSITION to both Bills.

Staff of the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline rely on the expertise of the Center for Medicare Advocacy for a wide range of health-related issues. Their attorneys are among the most experienced and knowledgeable on Medicare and Medicaid in the United States. They respond to our clients' most convoluted questions and problems regarding our health care system accurately, promptly and cheerfully. This assures that we are able to provide clients with high quality advice about their legal rights in the Medicare and Medicaid system. Hang in there and thank you for all you do.

I would like to commend the Center for all of the wonderful work that you have done over the years. I have had the opportunity to attend several training events sponsored by the Center that provided me with the knowledge and tools to assist Medicare beneficiaries exercise their rights in traditional health care systems as well as HMOs. I also know that SHIP programs around the country have turned to you to assist in complex cases for their clients who would otherwise have no advocate to insure their right to benefits and services to which they are entitled.

Dawn Washington
Elder Rights Program Manager, Georgia Division of Aging Services

I found your site to be very well laid out and [found it] easy to access information. While [Medicare is] complicated, you make things much easier to understand. Thank you.

[I came to your website] for general information before returning to home health nursing. I am an RN who's been out of the field for 3 and 1/2 yrs, and I know that rules and regs are changing all the time. I was surfing the net for info to get me up to date on all the current regs. I am incredibly pleased with the info I have received here.

I also have a sister with MS, this info will one day prove very beneficial for me personally too.

The link boxes are great, easy to go to something else, and they are always there, no matter where one goes on the site. Thanks for making it so easy

Your site is the most helpful I've found re: current standards, info, & legislative awareness. I find it invaluable. Thank you!