Intent To Award 54 Single-Source Supplements for Current Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) State Grantee

ACTION:

Notice of single-source supplements.

SUMMARY:

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) announces the intent to award 54 administrative supplements in the form of cooperative agreements to existing SMP project grantees to further support SMP activities in each state, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The purpose of existing grantees' work is to empower and assist Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report health care fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education with an emphasis on reaching Medicare beneficiaries with limited income and those residing in rural areas. The administrative supplements for FY 2021 will be distributed via formula to the existing 54 SMP state grantees, bringing the total for the supplement awards to $2,002,468. These current SMP grantees will use this funding to further enhance or expand existing and prior established plans to empower and assist Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report health care fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education. This additional funding will be targeted to reach Medicare beneficiaries with limited income, and/or those residing in rural areas.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For further information or comments regarding this program supplement, contact Marissa Whitehouse, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, Center for Integrated Programs, Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling; telephone (202) 795-7425; email Marissa.Whitehouse@acl.hhs.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Program Name: Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP).

Recipient: 54 current SMP grantees.

Period of Performance: The award will be issued for the Fiscal Year 2021 project period of June 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022.

Total Award Amount: $2,002,468 total in FY 2021.

Award Type: Cooperative Agreement.

Statutory Authority: The statutory authority is contained in the HIPAA of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-191).

Basis for Award: With the final FY 2021 appropriation, Congress established the new baseline for the SMP program, setting the minimum ACL will receive to support this program to $20 million annually. This is an increase of $2 million over the amount ACL received for SMP historically. The additional funding is intended to expand and enhance current SMP activities with the purpose of reaching more Medicare beneficiaries. As such, OHIC is proposing to distribute the additional funding to the existing SMP state grantees to establish new baseline funding amounts for each of the state projects.

The current SMP state grantees are funded to carry out the SMP Project mission for the period of June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2023. Much work has already been completed and further tasks are currently being accomplished. It would be unnecessarily time consuming and disruptive to the SMP program, and the beneficiaries being served, for ACL to establish new grantees at this time. The current grantees are providing critical services in an efficient and successful manner. These administrative supplements will allow the SMP state grantees to expand their current work in empowering Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report health care fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education with a particular emphasis on reaching Medicare beneficiaries with limited income and those residing in rural areas. The existing SMP state grantees are uniquely placed to continue and expand this work. Since 2018, and for years before for many repeat grantees, current grantees have been the proven state and community presence for preventing, detecting, and reporting Medicare fraud. There is one SMP state grantee project in each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2019, the most up-to-date complete year of data, the 54 SMP projects had a total of 6,875 active team members who conducted a total of 28,146 group outreach and education events, reaching an estimated 1.6 million people. In addition, the projects had 320,590 individual interactions with, or on behalf of, a Medicare beneficiary. For 2019, the SMP projects reported $2.4 million in expected Medicare recoveries. This program has successfully operated since its inception 23 years ago. Current grantees are closely monitored and are successfully meeting all programmatic goals under the current SMP grant.