Medicare Rights Announces Renewed Partnership with Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging to Support SHIP Counselors Nationwide through the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center

Washington, DC –The Medicare Rights Center is proud to announce a renewed partnership with the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging (NEI3A), which was just selected to receive a $2.85 million, three-year grant from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) to operate the State Health Insurance Assistance Program National Technical Assistance Center. With renewed funding, the SHIP TA Center will provide services to support 54 SHIP projects across the nation as they help millions of older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers, and professionals navigate health coverage.

“Medicare Rights is delighted to partner again with the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging to bring our Medicare expertise to the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center,” said Medicare Rights President Joe Baker. “Together we can ensure that SHIP counselors throughout the nation have the training and education resources they need to assist older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers with their health coverage questions and concerns.”

The Medicare Rights Center, a national, nonprofit consumer service organization which each year reaches more than three million Americans with Medicare counseling and education, has been a valuable part of the SHIP TA Center and the SMP Resource Center since 2014.

Medicare Rights serves as the content expert for the SHIP TA Center and develops and maintains courses and other features for the online counselor certification and training tool that many SHIPs use to prepare their own counselors to help clients. Medicare Rights also offers one-on-one counseling to SHIPs through an email channel, develops monthly Medicare Minute presentation content for SHIPs to lead with their own audiences, and leads trainings to continue building the knowledge and expertise of SHIPs.

Under this new funding, Medicare Rights will also support the SHIP TA Center and SHIPs themselves as they increase the public’s awareness of SHIPs and promote broad understanding of the mission of government programs, including SHIPs.

Over the coming three years, the SHIP TA Center, with support from the Medicare Rights Center, will continue to provide its essential services, responding to a rapidly changing programmatic environment and a booming Medicare population, currently comprised of 57 million older adults and people with disabilities.

Press Contact: Mitchell Clark – mclark@medicarerights.org

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