ACL's Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling has awarded the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging as the Senior Medicare Patrol National Resource Center (SMPNRC). The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) program mission is to empower and assist Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers, to prevent, detect, and report suspected healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education.
This cooperative agreement awards an anticipated $4,400,000 over a five-year project period, from September 1, 2020, through August 31, 2025. The SMPNRC was created in 2003 to provide training, support, and technical assistance to all 54 SMPs project funding recipients nationwide. The SMPNRC will:
- Maximize the effectiveness of SMP projects in Medicare fraud prevention outreach and education;
- Ensure a fully consolidated, national approach to reaching Medicare beneficiaries with the SMP message and forge national visibility for the program;
- Provide technical assistance through online training (webinars), workshops, and SMP networking opportunities; and
- Serve as a central source of information, expertise, and technical assistance by: sharing knowledge and best practices; supporting both novice and experienced SMPs; providing on-going support and information on issues and trends in health care fraud, errors, and abuse; developing new products and tools for the national SMP network, including fact sheets, job aids, and training manuals; and providing expert guidance in the use of national SMP data reporting and service tools (particularly outcome reporting and volunteer training tools) through webinars, one-on-one assistance, and written instructions.
Highlights of Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging’s planned work include:
- Maintain, enhance, and oversee a state-of-the-art, national, public-facing website, smpresource.org, including content development, enhancements, and contract management with the website vendor, to provide a comprehensive source of information on the SMP program; Medicare fraud, errors, and abuse; and SMP project technical assistance. This site will also house a password-protected, comprehensive, mission-specific resource library and source of training;
- Maintain, enhance, and oversee a secure, national, public-facing mobile application to assist in preventing and detecting Medicare fraud, errors, and abuse;
- Act as a clearinghouse for ACL on complex case data and referral information in SMP emerging fraud trends;
- Produce electronic SMP Consumer Alerts and in-depth grantee resources related to timely Medicare fraud trends for public and state SMP use; and
- Partner with the SHIP TA Center and National Center for Benefits Outreach and Enrollment, as well as other ACL National Resource Centers, on joint events, relevant tools, services, and publications.
Visit ACL's website for more background about the Senior Medicare Patrol program.