National Consumer Protection Technical Resource Center

The summary for the National Consumer Protection Technical Resource Center grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Administration on Aging, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

National Consumer Protection Technical Resource Center: Executive Summary As the effective and visible advocate for older Americans and their concerns, the Administration on Aging (AoA) maintains support for efforts to educate and empower elders to prevent and identify Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare fraud. This is accomplished through the efforts of AoA's SMP (formerly Senior Medicare Patrol) program. With this grant opportunity, AoA will hold a competition for one cooperative agreement to operate the National Consumer Protection Technical Resource Center (the Center). The cooperative agreement will provide for training, technical assistance, and promotional events in support of the SMP program. SMP projects train and mobilize senior volunteers to provide consumer education to beneficiaries in their communities. The program is operated by 57 state-wide grantee projects, in all states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam. Projects target health care fraud control education and outreach activities to vulnerable beneficiaries, their families, caregivers and other consumers. The goal of the SMP program is to empower individuals to prevent, identify, and report potential Medicare and Medicaid fraud, to both protect Medicare and Medicaid dollars and protect consumers from the loss of personal income and health status due to fraud, error or abuse. The cooperative agreement will be funded at a federal share of up to $600,000 per year for a project period of up to three years, contingent upon the availability of federal funds. Domestic public or private and non-profit entities including state, local and Indian tribal governments, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, and institutions of higher education are eligible to apply. Funding for the new cooperative agreement is expected to begin on September 30, 2007, and is authorized under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act, Title II and IV of the Older Americans Act, as amended. The accompanying set of materials includes a description of the priority areas and all the instructions necessary to prepare and submit a grant proposal to compete for the award. I. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION Program Environment Billions of Medicare and Medicaid dollars are lost annually due to billing errors or intentional fraud and abuse of the healthcare system. The identification and prevention of fraud is vitally important to the financial independence and security of elderly people. Public awareness of the impact of fraud on the lives of older consumers is an essential step. Education of older Americans, their families, and their caregivers about a wide array of fraud schemes, such as telemarketing, mail, internet, and identity fraud, as well as how to report suspected fraud to the appropriate authorities, help protect seniors' financial resources through increased prevention, identification and reporting. Health care fraud is often under-reported, yet clearly has staggering economic consequences. Estimates of annual losses due to healthcare fraud range between $80 billion and $160 billion based on 2002 health care expenditures of $1.6 trillion. The U.S. General Accountability Office estimates that $1 of every $10 spent on public insurance programs is lost to fraud. Fraud not only impacts public and private programs; the most recent figure produced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimated that consumers themselves lose more than $10 billion annually to healthcare fraud. Beyond economic injuries, healthcare fraud poses serious threats to personal health. From unapproved products touted on the Internet as a "cure" for cancer, to complex wheelchair billing schemes designed to bilk consumers and Medicare out of millions of dollars for unnecessary or improper equipment, healthcare fraud is of concern to all. Because of obvious vulnerabilities??"false or outdated beliefs about healthcare and the cause of diseases, limited access to care, social isolation, or access to greater cash reserves??"seniors are more often the target of fraud, sometimes representing up to 80% or more of the victims in telemarketing scams according to the FTC. Seniors targeted by these schemes often end up losing their financial security, thus limiting their ability to make choices that will allow them to remain independent in their communities. Seniors are currently being targeted by individuals that use aggressive marketing tactics to get them to consider changing their Medicare health-care coverage and increasingly, instances are reported of beneficiaries having their Medicare plans switched without their authorization. Correcting this unauthorized switch can take months and cause problems with the doctors and hospitals that do the billing. Another type of fraud, identity theft, occurs when someone uses personal identifying information, such as name, Social Security number (SSN), or credit card number, without permission. The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Stolen SSNs have been used to obtain government benefits, including medical services such as Medicare. Scammers call elders with all varieties of strategies to obtain Medicare numbers or bank account numbers--soon afterward, the consumer and/or the government is robbed of their resources. Significant new benefits have been made available in recent years for people with Medicare. Recent Medicare reform laws have allowed beneficiaries a greater number of choices in how they receive their health-care coverage, making this area of healthcare highly competitive and another opportunity for potential fraud or deception of the elderly. In response to the implementation of the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, SMP and other AoA programs have mobilized efforts along with numerous other aging network partners and non-profit community organizations to empower beneficiaries to make informed decisions regarding the new benefit. The SMPs have also shared information that enables Medicare beneficiaries to protect themselves and their personal information in those instances where potential fraud or abuse may threaten the integrity of this important new benefit. AoA programs work to protect seniors from known abuses to which older adults are often susceptible and assure the basic rights and benefits of older people. Programs such as the SMP conserve and extend both personal and government resources, help avoid threats to financial security, and empower older Americans to make informed choices that enhance their ability to remain independent in the community. As the tide of aging baby boomers continues to swell the senior population, the importance of arming seniors and others with the knowledge to help in the fight against error, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs becomes even more critical.