Medicaid Consumer Involvement and Advisory Boards

1. Project Announcement

1. Changing Jobs? Know about HIPAA
2. Choosing a Doctor: Tips for Making the Right Decision
3. How Can I Advocate for Myself?
4. Making Health Insurance Choices During Open Enrollment
5. My Employer is Changing Health Plans: What Can I Do?
6. Second Opinions: Why, When and How
7. What is COBRA and How Can it Help You?

Getting the Best Out of Managed Care - Fact Sheets

Fact Sheets: Getting the Best Out of Managed Care

These illustrated fact sheets are designed for a general audience and are available in English and Spanish versions. The files are available in Word and PDF formats.

Feel free to print out these documents and reproduce them. The PDF files are the best suited for reproduction.

The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), in Lawrenceville, NJ, provided funding for "Making Sense of Managed Care Quality Information for Consumers with Special Needs." This project was made possible through a separate grant to CHCS by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

1. Fact Sheet 1: How can this information help me?
2. Fact Sheet 1: ¿Cómo puede ayudarme esta información?
3. Fact Sheet 2: Understanding Quality Measures
4. Fact Sheet 2: Comprenda las Medidas de Evaluación de la Calidad
5. Fact Sheet 3: Figuring Out Which Health Care Plan Meets Your Needs
6. Fact Sheet 3: Determine qué Plan de Atención de Salud Responde a sus Necesidades
7. Fact Sheet 4: Report Cards
8. Fact Sheet 4: Boletas de Calificaciones
9. Fact Sheet 5: Consumer Surveys
10. Fact Sheet 5: Encuestas de Consumidores

1. Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program
2. Get free health services for your child from the Child Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) Gateway program
3. Getting Family Planning with Family PACT
4. Getting the Health Care You Need From Your Managed Care Plan
5. Immigrants and Health Care
6. Meeting Your Share of Cost for Medi-Cal
7. What if Medi-Cal Says "No"?
8. Working People Can Get Help With Health Care
9. Not Getting Welfare? You Can Still Get Free Medi-Cal

1. Getting Medical Assistance
2. Getting Emergency Medical Care
3. Getting Mental Health Services
4. Getting Help With a Substance Abuse Problem
5. Getting the Health Care Services You Need

1. Choosing and Using a Health Plan (US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
2. Your Guide to Choosing Quality Health Care: Summary (US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research)
3. NHeLP's Guide: Choosing a Health Plan (Chinese Language Version, March '97)
4. NHeLP's Guide: Choosing a Health Plan (Spanish Language Version, March '97)
5. NHeLP's Guide: Choosing a Health Plan (English Language Version, March '97)

1. Your Civil Rights to Health Care (March '01)
2. OCR Fact Sheets: Your Civil Rights to Health Care. Your Rights Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (March '00)

1. NHeLP's Guide: Medicaid Managed Care: Your Choice Counts a Lot (Chinese Language Version, March '97)
2. NHeLP's Guide: Medicaid Managed Care: Your Choice Counts a Lot (Spanish Language Version, March '97)
3. NHeLP's Guide: Medicaid Managed Care: Your Choice Counts a Lot (English Language Version, March '97)

Getting Assistance

The following websites may assist you in locating legal or advocacy resources in your community:

1. LSC Directory-legal help in civil (not criminal) matters for low-income people
2. Protection & Advocacy System--provides protection of the rights of persons with disabilities through legally based advocacy
3. The American Bar Association website provides useful links to lawyer referral services and pro bono legal help for the poor.
4. Patient Advocacy Numbers. Extensive list of organizations with phone numbers and URLs organized by condition.

1. Legal Resources on MCACs for Advocates (June '05)
2. Medical Care Advisory Committee (MCAC) Fact Sheet: What is the MCAC? (Feb. '05)
3. MCAC Fact Sheet: Examples from Ohio and Pennsylvania (March '05)
4. MCAC Fact Sheet: Your state too can have an effective MCAC (March '05)

Medical Research

1. Patient Advocacy Numbers. Extensive list of organizations with phone numbers and URLs organized by condition.
2. Med Help International. Med Help is a non-profit organization who's focus is to provide medical information in non-technical terminology, in order to assist you in understanding your disease/condition and to help you make informed choices if necessary.
3. Federal Government's Consumer Information Catalog on Health

Prescription Drug Assistance Programs

1. The Medicine Program checknew("8/14/2000")
2. 1999-2000 Directory of Prescription Drug Patient Assistance Programs (phrma.org) checknew("8/14/2000")
3. Needy Meds (information about the various programs) checknew("8/15/2000")
4. Rhode Island Medication for the Needy Program
5. RxAssist (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) checknew("8/15/2000")

Quality of Health Care

1. Docfinder--Health professional licensing database (AIM)
2. The Foundation for Accountability (FACCT)
3. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
4. National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
5. California Consumer Healthscope
6. 20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors (AHRQ)

1. AARP's Health and Wellness Index
2. ElderNet Senior Health Page
3. Medicare -- The Official US Government Site
4. Medicare Rights Center
5. NHeLP's Medicare Page