An initiative to assist public interest advocates throughout the country with Medicare cases and issues, funded by the Retirement Research Foundation.

Project Summary and Goals

The Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. (the Center) has received a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation 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 will 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 to be Provided by Center for Medicare Advocacy

• 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; and
• An accessible data-base of Medicare Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decisions.

Project Coordination

Center for Medicare Advocacy attorneys, Sally Hart and Vicki Gottlich, will lead the Medicare Advocates Alliance calls. The Center plans to begin the Medicare Alliance conference calls in February 2009.  For further information about this project and to sign up for the monthly calls, updates, and materials, please contact Alfred Chiplin, Jr. in the Center's Washington, DC office at achiplin @ medicareadvocacy.org – (202) 293-5760 or Judith Stein in the Center's Connecticut office at jstein @ medicareadvocacy.org – (860) 456-7790.

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* For attorneys and others in private practice, the Center for Medicare Advocacy is considering a special set of programs and services, to include memoranda (with advocacy tips section), each on a different topic, coupled with some number of telephone/webinars.  We hope to have this program ready shortly, along with pricing information.