Program identifies unknown benefits

The Advocate

By EMILY KERN,  Advocate staff writer
Published: Dec 26, 2006

Baton Rouge--Senior citizens in the Baton Rouge and other areas can participate in a pilot program to help them find financial benefits they may be missing. 
   
A new online service that targets seniors affected by the 2005 hurricanes is aimed at helping them identify financial benefits for which they may not know they qualify.

The National Council on Aging selected 10 agencies, including Catholic Community Services in Baton Rouge, for the BenefitsCheckUp pilot program.

The service targets hurricane survivors ages 60 and older with limited incomes and resources, according to a news release issued by the National Council on Aging.

In Louisiana, Jefferson Parish Agency on Aging, New Orleans Area Council on Aging and the Odyssey House in New Orleans also are participating.

The other agencies selected are in Alabama and Texas.

As part of the program, agencies use an online service at http://www.BenefitsCheckUp.org to identify programs for which seniors may qualify.

The seniors answer questions about what benefits, if any, they currently are receiving.

Among several other things, they are asked their employment status, income, whether they are veterans and what medications they take.

The online service finds local, state and federal programs that can help pay for long-term, health-related expenses and other needs, such as heating and cooling bills, food, prescription drugs, Medicare premiums and more.

In just a few minutes, a person receives a report that details the programs for which they qualify.

“Through this innovative program, we hope to reach out and enroll thousands of seniors who continue to need help and support,” said James Firman, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging.

The agencies are encouraged to enroll people in either the Extra Help through Medicare’s Prescription Drug Coverage and/or Medicaid, Medicare Savings Programs or Supplemental Security Income, as well as the other programs.

Catholic Community Services in Baton Rouge is helping seniors navigate the Web site and complete the BenefitsCheckUp.

Anyone who leaves a message will get a call back from a staff member, said Walter Hackney, aging services developer for the agency.
“What we’ve been doing is trying to make the elderly a priority,” he said. “We’re definitely interested in connecting with new seniors out there who are evacuees.”

A person can give answers to the questionnaire over the phone, and have the answers submitted online by a CCS staff member, Hackney said.

Or, a staff member can mail them a copy of the questionnaire.

Staff members also have registered seniors for the program after visiting them at some of the trailer parks for hurricane evacuees run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’ll go to them,” said Todd Hamilton, deputy director for Catholic Community Services. “For anything they can’t do on their own, for any reason, because of a lack of literacy, lack of a stamp.”

Besides BenefitsCheckUp, the agency also is offering individual case management.

“These are mainly people who don’t have others looking out for them,” Hamilton said.

Photo credit:  Richard Alan Hannon 
Catholic Community Services of Baton Rouge aging services developer Walter Hackney, far left, and senior benefits program worker Susan Moore, far right, speak with Hurricane Katrina evacuees Alex and Doris Fountain, originally from New Orleans’ 9th Ward and now living in the Airport 2 FEMA trailer park in Baker, during a holiday party Friday at Renaissance Village in Baker. Seniors affected by the 2005 hurricanes now have a new resource to make sure they’re getting all the benefits for which they are eligible. Catholic Community Services is one of 10 agencies in three states selected for a pilot program of the National Council on Aging’s BenefitsCheckUp program.