ACL Awards 2016 SHIP Grants

2016 SHIP Grants Awarded, Transition From CMS Completed

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is pleased to announce the release of the 2016 State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) Grants. There are 54 active SHIP grants; one in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This year, the grants are for one year. However, ACL anticipates that future grants will be multi-year.

SHIPs provide state-wide health insurance information, counseling, and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries, their families and caregivers. The SHIP mission is to empower, educate, and assist Medicare-eligible individuals, their families, and caregivers through objective outreach, counseling, and training. The purpose of the state SHIP grants is to strengthen the capability of states and territories to support a community-based, local network of SHIP offices that provide personalized counseling, education, and outreach.

Specific objectives for 2016 include:

Enhancing program structure through counselor development, training activities, outreach efforts and partnership building. Funds are to be used to support locally accessible counseling services and to engage hard-to-reach populations.
Increasing state-wide engagement in community outreach in public forums, and to offer enrollment assistance from a trained, fully equipped, and proficient counselor workforce; and,
Promoting awareness of provisions of the Patient Protection Act that affect Medicare beneficiaries.

In 2014, management of the SHIP program was transferred from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to the Administration for Community Living (ACL). The release of these 2016 grants marks the end of the period that ACL administered grants originally awarded by CMS.

To find a SHIP in your area, visit the SHIP Center at:https://www.shiptacenter.org/