Apr 6 2009
CMS on Friday announced that State Health Insurance Assistance Programs will receive $35.8 million to provide health insurance information to Medicare beneficiaries, CQ HealthBeat reports.
The programs are intended to help seniors make health insurance decisions and understand issues such as their medical bills. "These funds help ensure SHIPs continue their work with state and local governments, community-based organizations and others to meet the needs, beyond health care, of our Medicare beneficiaries," acting CMS Administrator Charlene Frizzera said.
The $35.8 million will be paid out to the programs from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010. An additional $1.5 million in performance-based funding will be awarded to SHIPs in September (CQ HealthBeat, 4/3).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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