Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nathan Heggem
Senior Communications and
Policy Associate
212-204-6286July 25, 2011
Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker Appointed to
Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education
-- Panel Lends Expertise to Education Programs for
Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP Enrollees --New York, NY – Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, has been appointed to the Advisory Panel on Outreach and Education (APOE), which makes recommendations on education strategies to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
“I am honored to be appointed to the APOE,” said Mr. Baker. “With the expansion of health coverage envisioned by the Affordable Care Act and the first wave of baby boomers becoming Medicare-eligible, consumer education has never been more vital. I am eager to bring to bear the lessons I have learned at the Medicare Rights Center, which has engaged in education initiatives for people with Medicare for over two decades.”
The APOE, created in 1999 as the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education, aims to bring together a broad range of perspectives to improve consumer education strategies. According to the 2011 APOE Charter, the panel will advise and make recommendations on strategies for:
- developing and implementing education and outreach programs for those eligible for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP);
- enhancing the government's effectiveness in education about the availability of other health coverage (for example, via health insurance exchanges), and using public-private partnerships to educate beneficiaries, providers and stakeholders;
- expanding outreach to vulnerable and underserved communities;
- assembling best practices for helping consumers evaluate health plan options;
- leveraging community infrastructures for information, counseling and assistance;
- drawing the program link between outreach and education, promoting consumer understanding of health care coverage choices and facilitating consumer selection/enrollment to support the overarching goal of improved access to quality care, including prevention services, envisioned under health reform.
Mr. Baker’s appointment to a two-year term will begin on July 28, 2011.
Over the last year, Mr. Baker has been named to a number of other advisory panels, including the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Geographic Variation in Health Care Spending and Promotion of High-Value Care, and the New York State Medicaid Redesign Team’s Program Streamlining and State/Local Responsibilities Work Group.
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