Area Agencies on Aging: Learn About the Benefits for Older Adults

As a contractor for Medicare, Kepro serves as the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization, also referred to as a BFCC-QIO. While Kepro provides BFCC-QIO services in 29 states, the general information is relevant to everyone who has Medicare (including Medicare Advantage) and everyone who works with people who have Medicare. 

This episode is a conversation with our guest from the Area Agency on Aging in Tennessee, Christin McWhorter. She will talk about the services that their organization offers for Medicare beneficiaries. Christin McWhorter is the Community Outreach Manager with the Southeast Tennessee Area Agency on Aging and Disability. Christin has been employed with the Area Agency on Aging for over 16 years and has extensive experience working with older adults and caregivers. As community outreach manager, she collaborates with health organizations, community groups, businesses, and others to promote the agency’s programs and services. She is the manager for the Area Agency’s Community programs, which include Volunteer Assisted Transportation for Seniors, State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) – Medicare Counseling, health promotion programs, agency volunteer recruitment, and programming/development support for 12 area senior centers. 

Christin is a certified leader for several nationally recognized evidenced-based health promotion programs. She facilitates support groups for family caregivers and is a certified Medicare counselor. She is a member of the Mayor’s Council on Livability and Aging, the Chattanooga Regional Health Innovation Coalition, and the Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s Human Services Transportation Committee.  For more information about Kepro BFCC-QIO, please visit www.keproqio.com.

KEY TOPICS
00:12: Overview, introduction of guest, Christin McWhorter
02:47: Introduction of the Area Agency on Aging (AAA)
07:42: Information about costs for services
08:33: How to contact the AAA
10:05: How AAAs work with other stakeholders
11:08: Final thoughts from our guest

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RESOURCES

 BFCC-QIO Information for stakeholders: www.keproqio.com/partners

 BFCC-QIO Information for people who have Medicare: www.keproqio.com/bene

 Area Agency on Aging Information: eldercare.acl.gov

Music: Motivational Upbeat Corporate by RinkevichMusic
https://soundcloud.com/rinkevichmusic
Video Link: https://youtu.be/U78mgVaM12M

Transcript

Welcome to Aging Health Matters, a podcast from Kepro, a Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization. We plan to cover healthcare topics for the Medicare population. Information in today’s show may help you or someone you know in their healthcare journey.  Thanks for joining us. Now let’s get started.

Kia Weaver
Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Kepro's podcast, Aging Health Matters. This is Kia Weaver, an Outreach Specialist with Kepro. Kepro is the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization for 29 states. We have three key services for people who have Medicare. We provide assistance with discharge appeals, quality of care complaints, and Immediate Advocacy. More information on these topics is available on our website, which is www.keproqio.com.

As we reach out on these topics to Medicare recipients, we work with many outstanding partners to help spread information about the Medicare program and its benefits. Today's podcast includes one of our partnering organizations, the Area Agency on Aging, and we're happy to bring one of our guests from the Southeast Tennessee region, Christin McWhorter.

Just as a reminder, we sometimes invite our partners to participate in our podcast based on the topic, and while we greatly appreciate their partnerships, we also want to be clear that the opinions and guidance expressed by them in this podcast is solely theirs or their agencies and not those of Kepro, CMS, or the Medicare program. So please keep in mind that state-by-state guidance may differ as well.

Welcome Christin. Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in the AAA?

Christin McWhorter
Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Again, my name is Christin McWhorter. I'm the Community Outreach Manager for the Southeast Tennessee Area Agency on Aging and Disability. I've had the honor of working on the team here for 17 years in Southeast Tennessee, starting working with some of our in-home service programs and our caregiver support programs to now working around our community-based programs. And so part of my responsibilities are to bring awareness about the services and programs and support that the Area Agencies on Aging provide to the community.

Kia Weaver
Perfect. Thank you so much. And can you tell us a little bit about the services that your organization offers and how they help the Medicare community?

Christin McWhorter
Yes. So Area Agencies on Aging were established under the Older Americans Act in 1973, and they were created to respond to the needs of Americans 60 and over in every local community. So Area Agencies are the organizations that's on the ground in the community to assist older adults and caregivers who are wanting to age well and age in their homes and age in the community.

So there are Area Agencies that cover every city, every county, and every state across the nation. So definitely people want to plug into how they can get connected to their Area Agency. But Area Agencies are here to advocate for and strive to help older adults and people with disabilities live with dignity and choices in their homes and in the community. And so we do that through several core services. One of those are supportive services.

So those are things like our in-home services that help people with daily housekeeping tasks that may be a challenge for them, or it may be able to assist with bathing or personal care, which is a challenge for some people as well. Those supportive services also includes an information and assistance line. This is the gateway for services and support for every Area Agency, and so various states have different numbers, and so learning the number for your state will be very important to figure out how to get connected and start to access those supportive services.

Then we also have services for caregivers. We have the National Family Caregiver Support program, and that helps people who are caring for loved ones who are over the age of 60. And those services include care coordination. They can include in-home respite services. They can also include services that support those homemaker tasks or those in-home tasks that I mentioned earlier. It really is whatever type of service the caregiver needs to help to continue to care for their loved one in the home. And so that's kind of the caregiver services that are offered. Then we also have nutrition programs and services. The nutrition program and services include home-delivered meals and congregate meals. Home-delivered meals are for those individuals who can no longer get out of their home, or it is a task for them to get out of the home. Then they may be eligible for a home-delivered meal that can be brought to their home, usually five days a week. It depends on the area that they live, but it's a meal that they can get without having to leave their home if they're unable to do so. And then we have congregate meals. Congregate meals are typically in either a senior center or some type of a living facility or maybe even a community center. But congregate meals are where people can go and have a meal at a site with other people, which is very important for socialization and also to meet those nutritional needs and goals. So congregate meal sites are available throughout our communities as well.

And then we have benefits counseling. So the Area Agencies have programs like SHIP, which is the state health Insurance assistance program. That is the Medicare counseling program, which provides Medicare beneficiaries with free and objective counseling as it relates to their Medicare benefits, which can be very confusing for people to navigate and understand what their options are. So we have counselors that assist people with understanding all of their options as it relates to Medicare. And then we also help people apply for long-term care for nursing home or home services in Tennessee. Every state's different, but the Area Agencies can assist people with applying for long-term care benefits when they need a little bit more of supportive services as it relates to being in the home or if they need to look at being in a facility or you know, a nursing home. And so we also provide assistance with transportation.

Again varying from different areas here in Southeast Tennessee, we have a volunteer-assisted transportation program. And so I think it's just important for people to know that Area Agencies have a lot of different resources and services that may be able to assist them or may be able to assist people that they're caring for.

Kia Weaver
Perfect. Thank you so much for providing that information. And are all of your services free for those who have Medicare insurance and does that include Medicare as a secondary insurance as well?

Christin McWhorter
Programs and services provided by the Area Agencies are at no cost to individuals again being funded through the Older Americans Act, so people can access a majority or most of the programs and services at no cost to them. There are some contribution-sharing for nutrition programs at some locations; like in our area it's $1.50, but people are not denied services based on their ability to make that contribution. So again, the majority of the services are available at no cost to older adults over the age of 60.

Kia Weaver
Perfect. Thank you for clarifying that. And you did mention that your services are available for Medicare beneficiaries in every state. However, the phone number, I believe you said is different depending on the state. So is there a resource or website where Medicare beneficiaries can find that information on how to contact the organization?

Christin McWhorter
Yes, they can go to eldercare.acl.gov, and they can find their local Area Agency on Aging and Disability and how to get connected to that local resource.

Kia Weaver
And do you have any tips for our listeners who may be on Medicare or listeners who are community organizations who provide services to seniors?

Christin McWhorter
Yes, I definitely would suggest that people reach out to their local Area Agency on Aging and Disability, learn about the resources that they have, learn about the particular supports that may be available through them. And then I also suggest that people reach out to their area senior centers. Senior centers are a great way not only to stay socially connected, but also they have a wealth of knowledge about resources and programs and supports that might be available right in someone's backyard, right in their community. So reaching out to an area senior center can really provide a lot of support to Medicare beneficiaries. So I suggest they do that.

Kia Weaver
Thank you for sharing that. And you mentioned that you worked with the SHIP stakeholders. Do you work with other stakeholders as well? And if so, in what capacity?

Christin McWhorter
Yes. So we try to collaborate with any organization that is helping to support older adults or helping to support their caregivers. So SHIPs being one of our programs that helps is definitely one of the things that we like to partner and provide to people about their insurance or their Medicare information. We also partner with the local health departments. We partner with our local university school of nursing and school of social work. So any organization like those that are helping people, we like to try to connect with and make sure that we can spread the word about the different resources that are available.

A lot of times people are unaware of the help that's out there and so we want to try to connect with anyone who can help spread the word and help to support our older adults.

Kia Weaver
Great. That sounds great. Thank you for sharing. And do you have anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners?

Christin McWhorter
And I would just encourage people to stay connected. A lot of times people feel like you're alone when you're going through the various stages and trials of life, but just stay connected so that you know what support is out there for you. Learn about the community resources, learn about your senior centers and what they have to offer, and reach out again to your Area Agency on Aging and Disability, so that you can figure out what may be some options for you and your local community. Every community looks different, and every Area Agency on Aging and Disability tries to meet the needs of what the local community looks like.

Kia Weaver
Thank you so much Christin. I really appreciate you being our guest today and giving us some great information to move forward with learning about the AAAs. Be sure and listen to our next podcast that will be coming up. We do a monthly podcast. You can find more about Kepro's podcast by going to our website, which is www.keproqio.com, to learn what podcasts we have. And you can listen to any of the past podcasts that we have as well.

With respect to different Medicare beneficiaries and stakeholders that we work with, if you'd like to also receive a newsletter from Kepro, which we send out, you can sign up for that on our website as well, keproqio.com, and we look forward to having you listen to our future podcast episodes, so please stay tuned. Any of the information that we have today will be available in the show notes. So please continue to listen to Aging Health Matters by Kepro. Thank you so much.