Education/Training
Because we cannot help everyone on Medicare directly, Medicare Rights Center's education and training programs are targeted to professionals who assist older and disabled clients. By providing professionals with the tools, information and skills they need to help their patients and clients with Medicare questions and problems, we can help a lot more people on Medicare.
MRC's education department is working hard to understand how the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) will be implemented and producing educational materials to help people understand those changes (see our web page on the new law).
Currently, MRC's main education drive is through Medicare Interactive, MRC's new web-based, interactive counseling and assistance service. Medicare Interactive makes all of MRCs cumulative knowledge and experience available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Medicare Interactive (MI) offers users four tools:
MI has been made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Opportunities Program, with matching grants from the Altman Foundation, the Stella & Charles Guttman Foundation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies.
- MI Counselor. An interactive Medicare counseling system, complete with case examples, frequently asked questions and links to subject-specific web sites.
- MI University. An online series of training programs that allow you to learn the ins and outs of Medicare with interactive multimedia lessons. Also includes downloadable PowerPoint documents you can use to give presentations in your community.
- MI Local Services. A searchable database of local health care resources, including community service agencies and national hotlines.
- MI Community. Bulletin boards and newsletters that allow you to stay up-to-date on health care issues, share your stories and learn from others.
Through various grants and contracts, the full Medicare Interactive web site is currently being rolled out through partnerships in New York, Florida, Ohio, Mississippi, Maryland. and Montana. The MI Counselor tool is currently publicly available through AARP at www.medicareinteractive.org/aarp and a Florida-specific version is available at fl.medicareinteractive.org.