Senior Day attendees point to Medicare/Medicaid programs as among top worries

Angela Marino, chief operations officer, and Meridith Lambe, chief executive officer, arrived at Senior Day with Lifespan Network, the “largest and most diverse senior care provider association in the Mid-Atlantic.”

The pair wanted to speak to their state representatives regarding House Bill 1226, which would prohibit Medicare issuers from basing their prices on a patient’s condition. 

Additionally, they addressed House Bill 1391, involving the CHOICE (Community and Home Options to Institutional Care for the Elderly and Disabled) program in Indiana.

“We're here to advocate for the CHOICE program,” said Marino. “Choice is 100% state-funded dollars. We want to educate the legislators that funding is used to help individuals that are not yet eligible for Medicare.” 

Nancy Moore is the senior Medicare patrol program director for Senior Medicare Patrol. SMP “helps to educate folks on how to protect, prevent, detect, and report Medicare fraud for caregivers and beneficiaries,” she said.

“It's a huge problem. All should be concerned because it's all federal dollars, so we educate people on how to read your summary notice because people can be confused by insurance,” said Moore.

Around $100 million is lost in Medicare and Medicaid each year from fraud and other incidents.

In addition to HB 1391 and HB 1226, CICOA highlighted several important bills that are currently on its radar, which could impact senior individuals:

House Bill 1048 increases the personal allotment for in-home care and Medicare recipients from $52 to $100.

House Bill 1161 provides licensing for home health aids by the Indiana Department of Health and adds the names of licensed health aids to the state registry. 

House Bill 1162 controls the rate of rental increase, for example prohibiting landlords from raising rent more than twice in a 12-month span.