Everyday in communities across the country, people contact aging and disability organizations seeking help with basic needs. Benefit programs assist millions of financially vulnerable persons with disabilities and older adults. Organizations that serve persons with disabilities and older adults play a key role in connecting individuals to benefits that could help them pay for medical care, prescription drugs, food, and heating for their homes. By providing outreach and assistance, disability and aging organizations help to raise awareness and increase enrollment into benefit programs.
 
Reaching potentially eligible individuals is a vital factor in increasing enrollment rates in benefit programs. The identification and sharing of promising practices can help strengthen our understanding of successful outreach strategies. To learn more, ADvancing States' MIPPA (Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act) initiative, in partnership with the National Council on Aging (NCOA), is hosting an Innovations in Benefits Outreach national contest to identify and disseminate promising practices in benefits outreach to persons with disabilities and older adults. Organizations are encouraged to think broadly about the many ways that they reach out to, engage, educate, and assist individuals in need of benefits assistance.

Please view the link below to submit your entry and find more detailed information about eligibility, selection criteria, and awards, which includes registration and lodging at this year's National HCBS Conference! For the submission form in an alternate format, please contact Samantha Gardner at [email protected]. The deadline for submission entries is Friday, March 15, 2019.
 
Click here to submit an entry and share your practice with us!