LOCAL HELP FOR PEOPLE WITH MEDICARE

WEEKLY
DIGEST

Phone: 800-253-7154
Fax: 301-593-9433
Email: SHIPresourcecenter@air.org
SHIP National Resource Center
10720 Columbia Pike, Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20901

August 18, 2008

This Week’s Hot Topics:

         I.            Alaska SHIP/SMP Conducts Outreach at the Anchorage Project Homeless Connect

       II.            SHIP Promotional Profiles — OK Profile Available Online at SHIPtalk

      III.            What Is Section 508 Compliance?

    IV.            CMS Communication

      V.            Updates, Resources and News

    VI.            Open Door Forums

Volunteer Spotlight

In the Spotlight: Peter Christie, California

Mary Ozurovich, Volunteer Coordinator at the California SHIP — Orange County, nominated Peter Christie, citing his dedication and compassion for the hundreds of clients he has assisted in the 10 years he has volunteered. Peter has three separate community centers at which he is in high demand because of his expertise in Medicare and other health insurances. He is often surprised that he meets someone from across the county at his counseling site, because his reputation is held in such high regard! 

Mary said, “Peter has a wonderful personality and makes the people he helps feel at ease. He provides excellent customer service to his clients. His motto is to “empower people” with clear and concise health insurance information. It is an honor to work with Pete.”

Congratulations to Peter!

Nominations
Is there a volunteer you would like to spotlight in the SHIP Weekly Digest? Do you have a volunteer who consistently demonstrates a high level of customer/client service? Is there a volunteer you’d like to see recognized for their accomplishments?

If so, we’d love to hear from you! Send us a brief write-up on the volunteer including the following information:

• Your SHIP office name, city and state
• Your full name and title
• Volunteer’s full name, title and counseling location
• How long the volunteer has been volunteering for your SHIP
• Approximate hours a month he or she volunteers
• Three to five sentences about what makes that person a great volunteer (significant accomplishments, awards, etc.)

Photos of the volunteer are optional. Photos must be:

• JPEG format
• 72dpi with a minimum width of 200 pixels

Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. Send your write-up and optional photo to SHIPresourcecenter@air.org.

Share Your News and Announcements

Please send us your news items and announcements, such as recent awards, recognitions, news releases, media coverage and staff changes. Feel free also to submit story ideas and suggestions. Send your submissions to SHIPresourcecenter@air.org.

Extra Help Outreach on the Island of Kauai
The CMS Region IX Pacific Area Representative, Mary Rydell, and Director of Hawaii’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), Sage PLUS, provided training and resources about Medicare and Medicaid including extra help with prescription drug costs during several outreach events in Lihue, Kapaa, Hanalei and Princeville, HI. The Region 9 CMS Regional Office visited the local Social Security Administration office, dropped off updated brochures and materials at the Kauai County Agency for Elderly Affairs, provided training and materials to four local pharmacies and Ho’ola Lahui-Hawaii Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in ZIP code 96766. The office also held a training session for the Kauai Sage PLUS volunteers.

Thank you to Peter Bauer, Region IX SHIP Liaison for sharing this outreach experience with the SHIP Network. If you have questions for Peter, contact him at peter.bauer@cms.hhs.gov.

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Alaska SHIP/SMP Conducts Outreach at the Anchorage Project Homeless Connect

Ensuring that information on Medicare and Extra Help reaches low-income subsidy (LIS) eligible populations is an ongoing top initiative of CMS, and they rely on SHIPs to conduct local and statewide outreach activities to reach these potential or current beneficiaries. We encourage SHIPs to send us news or stories of your efforts so that we may highlight it in an upcoming issue of the Weekly Digest. Please send your story (and any photos, if possible) to SHIPresourcecenter@air.org. CMS received the following report from Alaska for a recent event they partnered in to assist homeless Alaskans.

By Judith Bendersky, MPH, Alaska SHIP Director
judith.bendersky@alaska.gov

The Alaska SHIP/SMP conducted a one-day, one-stop event to provide services and entrée into services for Anchorage’s homeless. People who are “on the streets” in Alaska are likely to suffer frostbite or die in the winter, so it’s particularly important to help prepare and assist them in receiving services. Homeless participants check in and are given a sheet of paper and map of all the tables. There were dozens of young people with t-shirts on identifying them as volunteers who assisted the participants if needed. Attendees received haircuts and dental checks and met with representatives from Adult Public Assistance, Social Security, the SHIP/SMP office, low-income housing providers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, transitional living, disabilities services, food bank, and other services and items specifically targeting the needs of people experiencing homelessness. 

Volunteers from the SHIP/SMP table specifically wandered around among the approximately 400 participants and introduced themselves and services. Volunteers met many people who claimed they were on Medicare but didn’t have a card, didn’t know their number, didn’t have a mailing address, and so forth. I worked closely with the Social Security Administration representatives at a nearby table. They were able to call to dedicated staff at their office to look specific information up for attendees. 

The participants included many “categories” of people in need: chronic inebriates; young people who moved to Alaska for the permanent fund dividend (PFD) and didn’t know how expensive it was to live here; young people from Covenant House who “couch surf”; single moms with children; working poor people who can’t afford housing; veterans recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder/mental health issues; underemployed and over-optimistic fishermen who had a bad season (fish came late, bad runs, water too cold due to extremely long winter); and Alaska Native Indian Health Service beneficiaries. Approximately 50 percent of participants are impacted by mental health issues.

The SHIP/SMP office participated as a way to reach out to people who may need to enroll or better understand their Medicare benefits. It was important to be represented there to inform participants about Medicare and also to network with other government agencies and private sectors providers.

The event was held on Friday, August 1, 2008, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in downtown Anchorage at the Egan Center.

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SHIP Promotional Profiles — OK Profile Available Online at SHIPtalk

The SHIP Resource Center has developed a SHIP Promotional Profile template, and the program specialists have been working with their assigned SHIP directors to create each state’s SHIP Promotional Profile.

The SHIP profiles were created for SHIPs to use as promotional pieces. The profiles can aid in ongoing state and local educational and outreach efforts to promote SHIPs to Medicare beneficiaries, other state agencies and programs and residents in the states. SHIP profiles also can be used as “leave behind” pieces when approaching potential partner organizations. A standard template was used to create a unified look for all of the profiles — part of a branding effort for the SHIP network.

The SHIP Resource Center encourages SHIPs to review their promotional profile each quarter and provide timely updates and information to the Resource Center to keep the profiles current.

Now Available on SHIPtalk — OK Promotional Profile
Read about how Oklahoma has been partnering with other state agencies and organizations to reach the dual and LIS populations.

These and other SHIP profiles can be found on SHIPtalk, under the “SHIP Promotional Profiles” banner. To view the profiles, visit http://www.shiptalk.org/Content/PromotionalProfiles.aspx.

Conducting Outreach Soon?
The SHIP Resource Center can help! We are pleased to provide color copies of completed SHIP Promotional Profiles to SHIP State Directors conducting outreach. The profiles are great promotional pieces to use during outreach events and as leave behinds. They contain information helpful to all audiences — Medicare beneficiaries, state agencies and programs, residents and potential partner organizations. SHIP Directors may send their copy request and shipping address to SHIPresourcecenter@air.org.

Profiles Now Available in Public View
The SHIP Promotional Profiles are now accessible to both registered and non-registered SHIPtalk users. All completed profiles are available in public view. To view the profiles, visit http://www.shiptalk.org/Content/PromotionalProfiles.aspx.

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What Is Section 508 Compliance?

Lately there has been much discussion about Section 508 Compliance and what this means for federal agencies. Those in the SHIP and aging networks might have heard about 508 Compliance with regard to developing and posting documents to their Web sites. For SHIP Directors, the SHIP Resource Center has made the completed state SHIP Promotional Profiles 508 Compliant before posting to SHIPtalk.org. The Weekly Digest newsletter that you are reading right now is 508 Compliant. To further understand Section 508 Compliance, below is background and additional information excerpted from CMS materials.

CMS is committed to making its Web sites and all of its electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to the widest possible audience, including individuals with disabilities. In keeping with its mission, CMS has a legal obligation to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. § 794 (d)), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), Aug. 7, 1998, and to implement the Department of Health and Human Services’ HHS Policy for Section 508 Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) issued January 2005.  

Background
In 1986, Congress added Section 508 to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 508 established non-binding guidelines for EIT accessibility. On Aug. 7, 1998, the President signed into law the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which included amendments to the Rehabilitation Act. These amendments significantly expanded and strengthened the EIT accessibility requirements in Section 508 and made them binding on federal agencies.

Section 508, as amended, requires that when federal agencies procure, develop, maintain, or use EIT, they ensure that federal employees and members of the public with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data that is available to individuals without disabilities. Accessible technology improves an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in EIT, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals.

In January 2005, the Secretary of HHS issued the HHS Policy for Section 508 Electronic and Information Technology (EIT), which established guidance for implementing Section 508 throughout the Department of Health and Human Services. In June 2006, CMS issued its own agency policy for ensuring Section 508 compliance, which is to be implemented by all CMS employees, contractors, and partners performing CMS business. CMS is continuing to update and refine its policy, as well as establishing new responsibilities, procedures and mechanisms for ensuring Section 508 compliance for all of the agency’s EIT products and services procured, developed, maintained or used by CMS. This includes, but is not limited to, all content, documents, applications, and files authored, owned, developed, maintained, and published on CMS public-facing Web sites and the CMS Intranet or distributed via broadcast e-mails.

EIT Accessibility Policy
It is the policy of CMS to implement and maintain an EIT accessibility program that provides (1) disabled and non-disabled employees with equivalent access to EIT, and (2) disabled and non-disabled members of the public with equivalent access to and use of CMS information and services.

All EIT systems or products that provide direct services to the public or to federal employees shall be accessible to people with disabilities, unless a formal request for an exemption from an established Section 508 standard is granted as an approved exception in accordance with established CMS procedures.

For questions regarding this policy and the CMS Section 508 Program, please contact the CMS Section 508 Official in the Office of Information Services, at (410) 786-1800. For a complete definition of EIT and details regarding the Section 508 standards, regulations, policies, plans, processes, and procedures, please visit the CMS Section 508 — EIT Accessibility Web page located at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/InfoTechGenInfo/03_Section508.asp#TopOfPage

What This Means for You
Documents and files posted to the Web, including HTML files themselves, must be accessible and readable by screen-reading programs, which read Web content aloud to assist vision-impaired people use for Web browsing. Images must be “tagged” with alt text, and the layout and flow of text must be logical so the screen reader can follow along. One common software application used by the public is the JAWS® screen reader; one tool for assessing compliance is IBM Policy Tester.

Resources
Some useful Web resources on 508 compliance:

• Section 508: The Road to Accessibility— http://www.section508.gov/
• 508@HHS checklists for developing 508 Compliant materials— http://508.hhs.gov/

HHS Web policies and standards— http://www.hhs.gov/web/policies/index.html#508

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CMS Communication

CMS Seeks Cosponsors for Educational Conference on E-Prescribing Incentive Payment Program
CMS recently announced a conference to educate physicians and other stakeholders about a newly enacted federal program of incentive payments to encourage the use of electronic prescribing. CMS is requesting interested public and private sector organizations to join the agency as cosponsors of the conference, which will be held Oct. 6-7, 2008, in Boston. To view the press release click here.

Medicare Pilot Program Will Offer Beneficiaries Choices for Maintaining Their Own Personal Health Records
CMS recently announced a pilot program to test options for beneficiaries with Original Medicare to maintain their health records electronically. Under this pilot in Arizona and Utah, a beneficiary may choose one of the selected commercial personal health record (PHR) tools, and Medicare will transfer up to two years of the individual’s claims data into the individual’s PHR. To view the press release click here.

CMS Releases Out-of-Pocket Limits for Medigap Plans K and L for Calendar Year 2009
CMS released the 2009 out-of-pocket (OOP) limits for Medigap plans K and L; the limits are $4,620 and $2,310, respectively. The OOP limits for Medigap plans K and L are updated each year and are based on estimates of the United States Per Capita Costs (USPCC) of the Medicare program published by CMS. The full text of the announcement is available on the CMS Web site at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Medigap/.

Guide to CMS, SSA and Plan Mailings — Summer and Fall 2008 
This linked chart explains the mailings that beneficiaries will receive. It also details the action, if any, the beneficiary should take. Additionally, links to the notices that are available are included in the document.

SHIP MMA Forum Call Summary Notes
Click here to view the Aug. 5, 2008, SHIP MMA Forum call summary notes. The summary notes are just a sampling of the discussion that took place during the call. For additional details about this call or previous calls please access www.SHIPtalk.org and click on Information Library. Complete audio tapes of the SHIP MMA Forum calls are also available in the Information Library.

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Updates, Resources and News *New Feature From Medicare Rights Center

Prevention Corner
A Friend for the Brain

Socializing with family and friends is enjoyable. And for elderly women, it can mean more. It can help them improve thinking ability, and might help to prevent dementia.

Women often experience increasing social isolation as they get older. Dr. Valerie Crooks of the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group found elderly women with smaller social networks were more likely to develop dementia. “There is a variety of ways in which one can stay engaged and it is usually through your community services.”

Senior centers and libraries offer social and educational programs for the elderly. Even simple interactions like communicating by e-mail and telephone are also helpful. The study in the American Journal of Public Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

To learn more visit http://www.presidentschallenge.org/home_seniors.aspx.

This Prevention Corner tip brought to you by the Daily HealthBeat Tip, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, visit www.hhs.gov.

Dear Marci Medicare Answers
The SHIP Resource Center is pleased to begin including the Dear Marci question and answer feature from the Medicare Rights Center. Look for updated Dear Marci features in this section of the Weekly Digest. Content is provided by the Medicare Rights Center and has not been written or reviewed by CMS or the SHIP Resource Center.

Dear Marci content is provided by the Medicare Rights Center, a national, not-for-profit consumer service organization that works to ensure access to affordable health care for older adults and people with disabilities through counseling and advocacy, educational programs and public policy initiatives.

Dear Marci,
My mother has to undergo radiation treatment for the next six months. We hired an ambulance company to transport her from her home to the hospital for her daily treatment. Will Medicare help pay for the ambulance’s services?
—Marie (Nederland, CO)

Dear Marie,
Most of the time, Medicare does not cover non-emergency transportation services. Generally, Medicare will only cover ambulance services in an emergency. However, Medicare might cover your mother’s ambulance services if she is unable to get out of bed without help, walk, or sit in a chair or wheelchair. If she requires vital medical services during her trip that are only available in an ambulance, Medicare might also cover her ambulance transportation.

If your mother resides in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) that does not provide the treatment she needs (and the cost of transport is less than bringing the treatment to her and back), Medicare will cover her ambulance services from the SNF.

To learn more about when Medicare covers ambulance services, visit Medicare Interactive. You can also learn about alternative resources that might help pay for transportation from the Eldercare Locator, here.
-Marci

The Medicare Rights Center sponsors Medicare Interactive, an online resource that translates complicated Medicare benefits information into “what-does-this-mean-for-me?” advice for professionals and Web-savvy consumers. The Medicare Rights Center also has two great hotlines staffed by expert counselors. People with Medicare can call (800) 333-4114. Professionals working with people with Medicare can call (877) 794-3570.

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Open Door Forums

Open Door Forums provide an opportunity for live dialogue between CMS and the provider community at large, to understand contemporary program issues and then help find solutions. The forums also proactively engage beneficiary advocates — in discussions about the opportunities and challenges associated with supporting access, improving medical outcomes, lowering costs and improving quality within our programs.

For Forum Schedule updates, Listserv registration and Frequently Asked Questions, please visit www.cms.hhs.gov/OpenDoorForums/.

Following is a list of CMS Open Door Forums:

The Physicians, Nurses & Allied Health Professionals Open Door Forum will be held on Tuesday, August 26, 2008, at 2 p.m. EDT. Please dial in at least 15 minutes before call start time. Conference leaders will be Dr. Jeffrey Rich, Dr. Bill Rogers, Mark Gilbert and Natalie Highsmith. To participate by phone dial (800) 837-1935 and enter conference ID 55464907. For an “encore” of this call, beginning two hours after the call has ended, dial (800) 642-1687 and enter conference ID 55464907. The recording will expire after three business days.

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