Strengthening Policy to Support Older Adults and Their Caregivers: General Operating Support (CMA)

Grant Summary

General operating support grants to the Center for Medicare Advocacy and three other advocacy organizations - Justice in Aging, Community Catalyst and PHI - will help ensure access to high-quality health care for older adults and support for family caregivers. Each of these organizations has a particular focus on groups that face disproportionate burdens and poorer health outcomes such as low-income older adults, older adults of color and the direct care workers who care for them.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA) is a non-profit legal organization that focuses on Medicare issues and access to quality care. CMA accomplishes its work through legal assistance, on-going negotiations and administrative advocacy with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, educating and informing legislators and other stakeholders, as well as strategic litigation when other avenues to protect the rights of Medicare beneficiaries have failed. CMA receives approximately 7,000 inquiries each year from beneficiaries and their families seeking access to Medicare and necessary care. Each year CMA produces approximately 15 webinars that are combined with detailed issue briefs on topics such as nursing homes, home health and coordination of benefits. Because of CMA’s expertise regarding Medicare, its staff are regularly tapped by journalists writing about changes and developments within Medicare.