Educating consumers to prevent health care fraud is the essence of the mission and message of the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) program. The SMP mission is to empower and assist Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education. The 54 SMP projects recruit and train volunteers to educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect their Medicare numbers, examine their Medicare Summary Notices to detect discrepancies, and report suspicious activity when detected. The SMP program seeks to empower seniors through increased awareness and understanding of health care programs to protect them from the economic and health-related consequences associated with Medicare fraud, error, and abuse. With this Program Announcement, ACL seeks to expand the reach of the SMP program by supporting the development of outreach and education strategies aimed at integrating traditionally hard-to- reach populations. Strategies should include the promotion of national partnerships, as well as, the development and dissemination of outreach and education materials to assist the SMP project grantees in their expansion efforts to ensure high quality and culturally competent service delivery. ACL will award up to three cooperative agreements, to applicants that seek to develop targeted strategies for outreach to and education of Medicare beneficiaries in the following traditionally hard-to-reach populations: · Medicare Beneficiaries under age 65 · Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Seniors · American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Medicare Beneficiaries. ACL plans to fund three (3) cooperative agreements (one for each of the priority areas listed above) at a federal funding level of up to $150,000 for one 17 month project period, pending the availability of Federal funds. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE