Webinar Information
Date:
October 30, 2024
Time:
1:00–2:00 p.m. CT
Location:
Zoom Webinar (link will be sent to attendees closer to the event)
Cost:
Free
Accommodations: Live-captioning in English will be provided for attendees. American Sign Language interpretation is only available upon request due to interpreter shortages throughout Iowa. ASL and other accommodation requests can be made by emailing harkininstitute@drake.edu.
Webinar Summary
This webinar will feature the results from a qualitative study with Iowa SHIIP counselors, who provide retirees with advice about Medicare enrollment. The Harkin Institute partnered with the Iowa SHIIP-SMP program and AARP for this project, focused on understanding the main challenges faced by retirees in navigating the Medicare enrollment process. The SHIP program provides unbiased advice about Medicare options to retirees through in-person counseling, including telephone, virtual, and face-to-face appointments. It is a particularly important source of information for those who face technological, physical, or language barriers. We sought to understand barriers for vulnerable groups, such as dual-eligible, low-income, and limited English proficiency retirees, in addition to the overall counselor experience with the program. This research is part of a larger research project focused on the financial impact of health insurance on retirees.
Read the Accompanying Report!
Rewarding, Challenging, and Under Resourced:
A Qualitative Review of the Experiences from
Iowa SHIIP-SMP Volunteer Counselors Serving Medicare Beneficiaries
For this policy report, The Harkin Institute partnered with AARP and Limelight Insights by Shugoll to conduct in-depth interviews (IDIs) with volunteer counselors supporting the Iowa Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) and Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) office. Participants were asked to share their experiences in providing Medicare counseling and support services to Medicare beneficiaries. Participants were asked about the challenges they face with providing these services, with an emphasis on the unique challenges faced by dual-eligible, lower-income or limited English proficiency (LEP) populations. Within this policy report, our research team shares the key findings and themes from the IDIs and outlines several recommendations for expanding upon (and improving) the quality of service provided to Medicare beneficiaries through the Iowa SHIIP-SMP program. Additional research is needed to better understand the generalizability of these findings for SHIP programs on a national scale.
Webinar Panelists:
Brandy Bauer
Brandy Bauer joined the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging (NEI3A) team in August 2024 as the joint center director for the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) Technical Assistance Center and Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Resource Center. Before joining NEI3A, she spent over a decade at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), including as director of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) Resource Center. She has extensive knowledge around Medicare enrollment and public benefits – including Medicare subsidies – for low-income older adults and persons living with disabilities.
Kristin Griffith
Kristin Griffith joined the Iowa Insurance Division’s Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) and Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) in February 2020. These federally funded programs provide counseling, education and casework assistance to over 48,000 Iowa Medicare beneficiaries annually. SHIIP/ SMP services are provided state-wide through a network of over 120 sponsor sites, hosting almost 400 Volunteer Counselors.Griffith has two decades of program management experience, with a focus on leveraging resources and partnerships with service users, community agencies, and government to improve impact; overseeing large-scale volunteer programs, and managing federal contracts. Griffith holds a Master of Public Health from Boston University, and an MBA from York University in Toronto, Canada.
Paige Yontz
As a former nursing home and assisted living administrator, Paige Yontz understands first-hand what it takes to serve seniors in a complex regulatory environment. This experience, coupled with her lifelong passion for seniors, makes her an excellent advocate for older Iowans in her role as State Advocacy Manager for AARP Iowa.Following her time in long-term care in both Wisconsin and Indiana, Yontz returned to central Iowa and transitioned to a primary care setting with The Iowa Clinic where she served as a Practice Manager for two of their family medicine locations. From there, she applied her aptitude for regulatory comprehension and implementation and served as the Compliance Development Manager for Wolfe Eye Clinic, where she initiated a corporate compliance program.
An Iowa native, Paige received her B.A. from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, with double majors in Accounting and Business Management, and recently completed her Masters in Healthcare Administration from St. Joseph’s College of Maine.
Rachel Gershon
Rachel Gershon joined Justice in Aging in 2023. Her work on the Health Team is focused on improving the experiences of low-income adults enrolled in Medicare, including paying for medication, leaving incarceration, and navigating both Medicaid and Medicare at the same time.
Joshua Pearson
Dr. Joshua Pearson is the program director of the Health/Healthcare Leadership graduate degree program at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota. He is an experienced leader and faculty in health care administration topic areas and is certified in health care quality and health care financial management. He is also a senior research fellow with The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement in Des Moines, Iowa. Pearson’s research interests include health policy issues related to health insurance coverage (with an emphasis on Medicare and Medicaid) and safety-net providers.Prior to joining Winona State University, Pearson was employed in senior leadership and consulting roles with federally qualified health centers in the Midwest region. Pearson earned his Doctor of Education in Health Professions (EdD) from A.T. Still University.
Rayna Stoycheva
Moderator
Rayna Stoycheva joined The Harkin Institute in 2021 to oversee the Institute’s retirement security policy work. She is responsible for research on public and private retirement programs, retirement savings access and adequacy, financial literacy, and pension wealth inequality. Prior to joining THI, Rayna was a faculty member at the University of Miami, where she taught courses in policy analysis, public finance, health economics, microeconomics, and statistics. Rayna received a joint PhD in Public Policy, with a concentration in Public Finance, from Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology. She received a master’s degree in Public Administration from Ohio University and a Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Economics from the American University in Bulgaria.
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Phone: (515) 271-3623
Email: harkininstitute@drake.edu
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