Medicare Issues

Keep up-to-date on Medicare Issues by checking out our page, listed under the green "Public" button.

Health Insurance Counseling

& Advocacy Program (HICAP)

HICAP is a program of Senior Network Services.  They are located at 1777-A Capitola Road which is next door to the Mid-County Senior Center.  Their very well trained counselors will help all Medicare clients to better understand their coverage options.  They also are fantastic advocates for Medicare clients who need this type of help.  

If you have a patient who is confused about their Medicare coverage, please tell them to contact HICAP:

Phone:  (831) 462-5510  or (831) 637-0630

Email: HICAP  (snshicap@cruzio.com)

Web site: Senior Network Services, then on the left click on the HICAP link.

Advance Directives & DNR Forms

Santa Cruz we have the Santa Cruz County End-Of-Life Coalition (http://www.scceolc.org/). It is mainly operated by Hospice which runs a program called "Make Your Wishes Known". You can download an Advance Directive and get a heck of a lot of information from the SCCEOLC web site.

An Advance Directive form is made up of two parts:

• Your preferences about various kinds of medical treatment near the end of life (a Living Will) and

• The designation of an agent who can make decisions about your care when you can't (a Medical Power of Attorney or a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care).

The CMA has a web page of information on Advance Directives available to the public (http://www.cmanet.org/publicdoc.cfm/7).  They also sell an Advance Directive kit for $5.00 and DNR forms for $2 in their bookstore (http://www.cmanet.org/bookstore/category.cfm?catid=12).

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