Volunteers Help Elderly Cut Medicare’s Red Tape

For nearly three years Lema Jane Butcher has relied on Jo Duckwell’s monthly visits to her home to straighten out her Medicare paper work.

“She’s absolutely my brains,” said Butcher, 83, who is legally blind. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Duckwell is one of 14 San Gabriel Valley residents who help confused seniors tackle Medicare questions as volunteers for the Los Angeles-based Medicare Advocacy Project, or MAP. In house calls and monthly information sessions at community centers, the private, nonprofit group offers free counseling, education and legal aid to Medicare policyholders.

“Many don’t understand the rules and laws,” said retired IRS agent Joe Golden, who explains Health Maintenance Organizations and supplemental insurance options two Thursdays a month at the Monrovia Senior Center.

MAP was launched with seed money from the county Area Agency on Aging in 1984 with a staff of one. It is the brainchild of lawyers at the federally funded National Health Law Program and the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

MAP has since grown to a $600,000-a-year operation with 15 employees and 55 volunteers countywide, said Executive Director Bess Brewer. Private grants and donations supplement the program’s major funding from the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program.

“A lot of people were falling through the cracks,” Brewer said, referring to seniors who are not quite poor enough to qualify for free legal advice but don’t have enough money to hire lawyers on their own. At no cost to its clients, MAP attorneys pursue 1,000 to 1,500 cases a year on their behalf, from appeals of unpaid claims to complaints against health organizations that bill improperly.

Frequently, people only need to have procedures and options explained to them.

“Most do not have major problems, but they are problems to these people,” said James Hauser, a MAP counselor at the Arcadia Senior Services Center. “They come in all confused. Sometimes it’s a matter of sorting out bills.”

At other times, clients have to be advised that their HMO policies are only valid at certain hospitals.

“When you get a frail, elderly person you better be darn well sure he’s not signing up for a (hospital) he cannot get to,” said Hauser, 71. “The people we help really need it. You feel like you’ve done something good for them.”

Volunteers, usually retired professionals, are given three days of intensive training on Medicare-related issues and must pass an exam for certification, according to Brian Loring, MAP director of volunteers. Recruits are paired off with experienced counselors until they are ready to work alone.

MAP holds monthly meetings to update volunteers on changes in the law. Refresher workshops are offered annually.

“I wanted to volunteer at something that was more than office busywork,” said Golden, 75. “Most people don’t have the time or energy to resolve their Medicare problems, and that’s why we’re here.”

Duckwell, 77, a counselor at the Arcadia senior center since the program began, said she derives immense satisfaction from working with people who have no one else to turn to.

“They feel so insecure, it’s sad,” said Duckwell, a former Girl Scout program coordinator. “Sometimes they come in very upset. To face what these people have to face without help would be horrendous.”

The overwhelming choices offered by at least 50 supplemental medical plans available in California add to the bewilderment of many seniors. According to MAP officials, three out of four Medicare policyholders carry at least one supplemental insurance policy.

But the policies can give people a false sense of security, Duckwell said, because they often exclude many medical conditions.

Opal Bushman, 85, is just thankful that Duckwell saves her the chore of wrestling with claim forms.

“I just don’t understand all about that,” Bushman said, referring to the mounds of paper work. “I could, I suppose, send in my Medicare papers, but whether they’d be right or not I wouldn’t know. It’s a real comfort to have her interested.”

WHERE TO GET HELP WITH MEDICARE

Arcadia Senior Services 240 W. Huntington Drive (818) 574-5436 Jo Duckwell, James Hauser, Ruth Miller, Virginia Steinwinter

Azusa Senior Center 740 N. Dalton St. (818) 969-7176 Robin Fortson

Baldwin Park Senior Center 1430 Morgan St. (818) 337-9636 Marcia and Hillel Arkin, Janet Brown

Covina Joslyn Center 815 N. Barranca Ave. (818) 966-6378 Earl Purkhiser

Highland Park Adult Center 6152 N. Figueroa St. Los Angeles (818) 574-5436 Dorothy McGruder

Monrovia Senior Center 603 S. Myrtle Ave. (818) 358-1185 Joe Golden

Pasadena Senior Center 85 E. Holly St. (818) 795-4331 Robert Lohse

First Christian Church 1751 N. Park Ave., Pomona (714) 620-2309 Emelda Dixon

South Pasadena Senior Center 1102 Oxley St. (818) 441-1007 Charles Yarton