Medicare Announces Additional Funding For Health Insurance Counseling Programs For 2008

It would still be much more beneficial to simply the entire process. Of late I have had many individuals tell me they have no idea of what their insurance covers, much less Medicare and complain about the big thick fat books that are sent out to read. Who has time to read all of this? If we perhaps could make the process a little simpler, maybe we could save some money on adding Counseling services? If you still need more help, there’s a site where you can find legal help complete with all the forms, etc. you may need. Related story here. BD

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that an additional $15 million will be distributed to State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) to help people with Medicare get more information about their health care choices. The $15 million is the second of three installments of SHIP funding in 2008 and will be distributed in June. CMS will distribute over $50 million to the nation's SHIPs in 2008; of that, $36 million was distributed on April 1 and an additional $1.5 million will be distributed in performance-based awards to SHIPs in September. This funding represents a $20 million increase in SHIP funding over fiscal year 2007.