Volunteers at the Heart of Medicare Rights

For longtime callers to the Medicare Rights Center’s national helpline, many of the most familiar voices are our volunteers. Joining us weekly to counsel callers on Medicare questions and complex cases, our volunteers include current and former nurses, teachers, lawyers, and others—professionals from all walks of life who bring with them diverse experiences and a passion for helping others. Some of them are Medicare beneficiaries themselves, speaking to callers on the helpline as peers; others learned about Medicare from scratch during the comprehensive training all volunteers must go through before taking calls.

Volunteers Handle Calls with Expertise and Compassion

Scott, who has been a helpline volunteer for over a decade, is one such volunteer: he had no prior experience with Medicare when he first learned about the Medicare Rights Center while reading the news. He began by attending training in the evenings after work, completing educational modules to learn the basics and shadowing staff members’ helpline calls to build his expertise. Now, he handles various and difficult Medicare issues weekly, from explaining skilled nursing facility coverage to navigating multi-step appeals for coverage denials.

The most rewarding part of the experience, Scott said, is being able to “definitely help somebody who is overwhelmed by the complexity of Medicare.” His care and empathy for the callers he counsels are apparent: he shares callers’ frustrations when they have been misled or denied coverage, and he continues to root for them after the call is over. There are certainly difficult and frustrating situations where he comes up against the limits of the Medicare system and can’t help the caller, Scott said, “but the more rewarding ones far, far outnumber the frustrating ones.”

Ginny, another longtime volunteer on the helpline, also described her work as “truly rewarding.” The work is “interesting and important,” and the training provides excellent preparation for the variety of Medicare topics she deals with. She also highlighted the support and kindness among the Medicare Rights staff as a defining part of her volunteer experience.

Colleagues and Collaborators, Friends and Advocates: The Essential Role of Volunteers

Our volunteers are crucial collaborators in our work to make Medicare accessible to all who need it. They are cherished colleagues and friends to Medicare Rights staff and fellow volunteers, and they are vital advocates in the health care community. It is our honor to work with them and celebrate their dedication. Each year, we thank them for their hard work and advocacy at our Spring Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon and honor members of our community at our Annual Benefit each fall.

Our staff and volunteers take pride in being a source of accurate and unbiased Medicare information. Scott emphasized that it’s especially important at this time for callers to know that someone who’s providing them with information doesn’t have ulterior motives and isn’t trying to sell them anything. As volunteers, he said, “we’re not trying to sell you anything. We don’t even have anything to sell! Our whole mission is to enlighten and explain how Medicare works so callers can be better consumers.”

More About Our Volunteers and Opportunities

Last year, our volunteers contributed over 7,600 hours of service, providing personalized counseling and education to members of the Medicare community. If you are interested in volunteering at the Medicare Rights Center, visit medicarerights.org/volunteer to learn more and apply.