A chart from the SHINE program shows eligibility guidelines for elders for health-related public benefit programs in 2009.
This month, outreach workers were gratified to hear that the importance of their work is being recognized nationally – in a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report on effective ways to enroll and retain children in the Children's Health Insurance Program, and in the CHIP reauthorization legislation itself – but at the same time they are struggling with funding cuts to their own programs and those they work with.
Prescription Advantage (PA), Massachusetts’ prescription drug assistance program for seniors and people with disabilities, has released enrollment and cost information for 2009.
The new law is good for members with "Extra Help" and many others.
A one-page chart clearly outlines who can receive which benefits and under what circumstances.
Massachusetts residents with questions about medications or difficulty paying for them can get help.
"Outreach & enrollment" means much more than putting up posters and helping people fill out MassHealth applications. Recently, over the course of a two hour appointment, my supervisor and I counseled one household on eleven different public health insurance, subsidy and care programs. We helped them file four separate applications to five different insurance programs, putting together a patchwork of care options to cover the hole left by the loss of employer-sponsored insurance.
MassHealth will not count federal economic stimulus rebates as income, but can consider them assets after an exemption period.
Some members may find benefits increase.
Changes in 2008 FPL guidelines are reflected in new charts for the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS).
