Medicare Education and Decision Support Tools

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Who will care for aging baby boomers? They will likely have to do it themselves. The need to educate boomers about the extent of the problems they will face in obtaining affordable health insurance and assisted-living services is abundantly clear. To date, boomers have tended to "turn a blind eye" to these issues, partly out of ignorance and partly out of denial that they will ever need these services. Medicare, Medigap, M+C, Medicaid, and private health insurance eligibility, enrollment, dis-enrollments, coverage, and costs have become a maze of complexity. Government sources of information are inadequate and often not sought until a crisis occurs. Our firm, JBS, runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' national resource center in support of all state health insurance and counseling programs We believe that the private sector can develop some informational products that will better enable boomers to plan for and use long-term health insurance options. The proposed products are CD-based interactive software, a "Medicare Game," a Dummies-type book that would make Medicare understandable, a toolkit for retirement planners and human resources professionals, and a Web site. Our SBIR goals are to develop prototype products, assess interest of likely distributors, and evaluate commercial viability.