February 20, 2018

Funding Opportunity: Senior Medicare Patrol

The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) program empowers Medicare beneficiaries, and their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report health care fraud, errors, and abuse. SMP projects provide local outreach, education, and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries through a trained volunteer workforce. SMP projects teach Medicare beneficiaries to protect their Medicare numbers, to detect billing discrepancies on their quarterly Medicare Summary Notice statements, and to report suspicious activity for further investigation. SMP projects disseminate fraud prevention and identification information through the media, outreach campaigns, and community events. ACL currently funds 53 SMP projects, including grantees in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

ACL is currently seeking proposals for a new 5-year grant cycle that begins in June of 2018.  ACL anticipates awarding up to 54 cooperative agreements to support SMP projects in each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. ACL plans to award one cooperative agreement per state or territory. A total of up to $15,572,276 may be available through this funding opportunity. The exact amount for which each state or territory is eligible to apply is included in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.  Organizations interested in becoming SMP projects should be aware of the following information:

• Informational teleconference: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. ET. The call-in number is 1-888-790-3252 and the passcode is 6785930.
• Due date for letters of intent: Monday, February 26, 2018 
• Application closing date:  Monday, April 16, 2018

The full funding opportunity announcement and other application materials are available from grants.gov.