Updates
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS),
Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office (MMCO) is pleased to announce the
following updates:
- Opportunities
to Support Enrollment in the Medicare Savings Programs and Extra
Help
- State
and Health Plan Resources to Promote COVID-19 Vaccination Access
- Vaccines.gov
- Making it Easier to Find Vaccines
Opportunities to Support Enrollment in the Medicare
Savings Programs and Extra Help
The Medicare
Savings Programs and Extra Help
are important programs designed to help low-income Americans afford
Medicare coverage. Many people who are eligible for these programs are
not yet enrolled. Each May, the Social Security Administration (SSA)
sends letters to 2 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries, informing
them about the Medicare Savings Programs and how they can help with
Medicare costs. These include the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary
(QMB), Specified Low-income Medicare Beneficiary (SLMB), and Qualifying
Individual (QI) programs. The letters provide information on what
Medicare Savings Programs cover, a brief description of the income and
asset criteria, and how to apply. SSA also sends a data file to each
state – sent this year on May 7, 2021 – identifying the Medicare
beneficiaries to whom the outreach letters are being mailed. States
can use these data files to conduct targeted outreach to individuals who
may qualify and support customer service representatives at Medicaid
hotlines who may receive calls. More information on this outreach
effort and the model letters (see specifically SSA-L447 and SSA-L448) are
on the SSA website;
the data file name is OLBG.BTI.S**.MEDOUT1.Ryymmdd.
See also the data file
specifications.
State and Health Plan Resources to Promote COVID-19
Vaccination Access
Dually eligible individuals have been disproportionately
impacted by COVID-19 and likely face barriers to accessing vaccination.
Health plans and PACE programs are uniquely positioned to ensure
equitable access and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among dually eligible
individuals. Resources for Integrated Care has posted several resources
that may be of interest to states and health plans.
The health plan-focused COVID-19
Vaccination Blog series highlights promising practices to
connect hard-to-reach individuals with COVID-19 vaccination by addressing
barriers such as healthcare issues, chronic conditions, and unmet social
risk factors. Other resources include:
Vaccines.gov - Making it Easier to Find Vaccines
The federally
supported website that will make it easier for individuals to
access COVID-19 vaccines is now live. Vaccines.gov
– powered by the trusted VaccineFinder brand – is available in English
and Spanish, with high accessibility standard, and will help connect
Americans with locations offering vaccines near them. It is meant to
complement the number of state and pharmacy websites that have been
successfully connecting many Americans with vaccinations, by providing a
unified federal resource for Americans to use no matter where they are.
Access to a vaccine should not be an obstacle for someone to
get vaccinated. Here are three vaccine tools to bring to your communities
right now:
- Visit vaccines.gov (English)
or vacunas.gov (Spanish)
to search and find a vaccine near you.
- Text
GETVAX (438829) for English or VACUNA (822862) for Spanish to
receive three vaccine sites on your phone within seconds.
- Call
the National COVID-19 Vaccination Assistance Hotline at
1-800-232-0233 for those who prefer to get information via phone
call.
STAY CONNECTED
Join the We Can Do This Community Corps: Help
in the fight against COVID-19 by encouraging family, friends, and your
community to get vaccinated. Join the Community Corps to get tips, tools
and resources to share. See https://wecandothis.hhs.gov/covidcommunitycorps
For more information on CMS COVID-19 Partner Updates, please
contact Partnership@cms.hhs.gov
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