Operational Excellence

December 20, 2007

National Council on Aging Lauds Kaiser Permanente

The National Council on Aging has given its President's Award to Kaiser Permanente for helping thousands of Kaiser Permanente members better understand the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy program.

The NCOA and Kaiser Permanente jointly developed a campaign in 2006 to identify thousands of Kaiser Permanente members who might qualify for the Medicare Low-Income Subsidy. The campaign identified close to 80,000 Kaiser Permanente members who might be eligible for LIS. More than 18,000 members responded to a direct mailing or follow-up phone call, and another 4,000 were referred by Kaiser Permanente call centers and pharmacies. Ultimately, 10,700 members applied for LIS and 25 percent of them were found eligible.

Based on that, those eligible members may receive $24 million in discounted lifetime Medicare benefits, the NCOA estimated.

"This groundbreaking work by Kaiser Permanente and NCOA is a great example of how health plans and nonprofit organizations can collaborate to help millions of Medicare beneficiaries take advantage of government programs," said Mark McClellan, an NCOA board member.

Kaiser Permanente, through the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, now has made that outreach campaign available to the public. A document explaining the joint project, "The Power of Partnerships: Lessons from Outreach for the Part D Low-Income Subsidy Program," is available through the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy.

For more, read the National Council on Aging's press release.