Financial Information

• Benefits CheckUp is a free, confidential, online service to see if you qualify for benefits and take the first steps toward applying. Millions of seniors and adults with disabilities qualify for—but are not enrolled in—programs that could help them pay for prescription drugs, medical care, food, or heat for their homes.

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a federal agency that has released resources for caregivers managing their loved one’s finances. Guides for guardians, trustees, and those with power of attorney; they outline financial management duties, ways to prevent financial exploitation, and where to turn for help.

• Home Equity Advisor offers information, tools, and consumer advice on how to use and protect the value in your home. This free website developed with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation helps older homeowners explore how they might be able to use their home equity to stay healthy and secure as they age.

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Financial Assistance with Care-Related Costs

• Benefits Check-Up and Benefits Check-Up RX are both a service of the National Council on the Aging that helps people over the age of 55 find federal, state, and local programs, both public and private, that may pay for some of their medical care and/or prescription costs.

• Cancer Financial Assistance Coalition is a coalition of financial assistance organizations that help cancer patients who are facing financial challenges. This organization focuses on education.

• Medicine Program is a patient advocacy organization that offers help to people who do not have coverage, either through insurance or government subsidies, for outpatient prescription drugs. They also assist those who cannot afford to purchase medications at retail prices. By working closely with patients, physicians, and drug manufacturers, they cut through red tape and obtain medications for free, or almost free-of-charge.

• The National Patient Travel Center connects those in need with charitable medical transportation, through their four programs: 1) National Patient Travel HELPLINE; 2) Airline Ticket program; 3) Volunteer pilot organizations, and; 4) Long Distance Ground Transportation program.

• Needy Meds helps people in need to afford medications and other health-care related costs.

• Partnerships for Prescription Assistance has access to more than 2,500 medicines 475 patient assistance programs. They help qualified patients without prescription drug coverage get the medicines they need through the program that is right for them. Many will get their medications free or nearly free. Call: 888-477-2669

• The Patient Advocate Foundation Program offers a broad set of advocacy services. Their Co-Pay Relief program provides direct financial support to insured patients, including Medicare Part D beneficiaries, who must financially and medically qualify for pharmaceutical co-payment assistance.

• RxHope helps people in need to obtain critical medications that they would normally have trouble affording. Acting as advocates they make the patient assistance program journey easier and faster by supplying vital information and help. Call: 877-267-0517

• Insurance

• Medicare is the official US government site for Medicare. Their Caregiver Resource Kit Caregiver Resource Kit offers printer-ready information designed to help caregivers address challenging issues and work effectively with Medicare.

• AARP is a non-profit, non-partisan membership organization that helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives. This link connects with their information about Medicare and Medicaid.

• Medicaid is a health insurance program for people with low income and limited resources. People must apply and be approved to receive state assistance for adults, or for children through their state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

• The National Council on Aging provides free, step-by-step help to choose a Medicare plan for the first time, reassess coverage each year during the open enrollment, and answer common questions about Medicare and what it covers.