Patient Advocate Services in Louisiana, Covered by Medicare

Yes. Since January 2024, Medicare pays for professional healthcare navigation through Principal Illness Navigation and Community Health Integration services. Medicare Part B covers about 80% of the cost, and a supplemental (Medigap) plan typically covers the rest, so most Louisiana members pay $0. We confirm exactly what your coverage looks like before your first session, and there are no surprise bills.

Yes, all 64 parishes. The service is fully virtual, delivered by phone, video, and secure messaging, so it works the same in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Alexandria as it does in the rural parishes of the Delta and the bayou country. Where the nearest specialist is an hour or more away, a virtual advocate you can reach without the drive is often the practical option, not the fallback.

Advocates work virtually and are matched to you, not to a zip code. What matters is that your advocate is the same person every time (One Advocate, For Life), knows Louisiana's programs like LaSHIP Medicare counseling, the Medicare Savings Programs the Louisiana Department of Health runs with no asset test, and the Community Choices Waiver, and gives you their direct phone, email, and text, so you never start over with a stranger in a call queue.

Yes, during your first six months with Part B. Under Louisiana Department of Insurance Regulation 33, people who get Medicare through disability have the same six-month Medigap open enrollment period as people turning 65, starting the month Part B begins: every Medigap plan an insurer sells must be offered to you regardless of age, and it cannot be denied or priced higher because of your health. Premiums for under-65 buyers are usually much higher, though, and an insurer may exclude a pre-existing condition for up to six months unless you had prior creditable coverage. Miss that window and coverage is generally medically underwritten until a new federal right applies. Questions go to the Louisiana Department of Insurance at 1-800-259-5300, the same line as LaSHIP.

Yes. Under Louisiana Revised Statutes 22:1112, in effect since August 1, 2022, anyone who already has a Medigap policy gets a 63-day window every year starting on their birthday. During it you can switch to a Medigap plan with equal or lesser benefits from the same insurance company or one of its affiliates, and the insurer cannot turn you down or charge more because of your health. It does not let you move to an unrelated company or to a richer plan without health questions, so it pays to compare that insurer's lower-cost plans before your birthday. Your insurer must tell you about the window when you apply.

Yes, that is where Louisiana's programs get specific. Home care for older adults runs through the Louisiana Department of Health's Office of Aging and Adult Services, applied for through Louisiana Options in Long Term Care at 1-877-456-1146. The Community Choices Waiver serves people 65 and older, or 21 to 64 with a physical disability, who need a nursing-home level of care, and there is a waiting list. Under it, a relative such as an adult child can be hired as the paid personal-assistance worker, including through the self-direction option; a spouse can be paid only with the Office of Aging and Adult Services' approval under its extraordinary-care criteria, and the person's responsible representative cannot be paid. Long Term-Personal Care Services is stricter: it does not pay a spouse, legal guardian, or responsible representative. Louisiana also has PACE in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Alexandria areas. Our advocacy is billed through Medicare, so we focus on the Medicare side: bills, appeals, appointments, coverage questions. For dual-eligible families that split works well: you manage the caregiving, and your parent's advocate handles the Medicare paperwork.

LaSHIP (reachable at 1-800-259-5300) is Louisiana's free Medicare counseling program, run by the Louisiana Department of Insurance and formerly called SHIIP, and it is excellent for one-off questions like comparing Part D or Medigap plans during Open Enrollment. Understood Care is different: a dedicated advocate who does the work itself, makes the calls, files the appeals, untangles the bills, and stays with you month after month, covered by Medicare. The two are complementary, and we often point our own members to LaSHIP counselors for enrollment-season plan comparisons.

In Louisiana we are in-network for Original Medicare (traditional fee-for-service Medicare); UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans (~39% of Louisiana MA members); Aetna Medicare Advantage plans (~11% of Louisiana MA members). Together that covers roughly 71.8% of Louisiana's Medicare beneficiaries. Market-share data: 2024-2025. Plan networks change, so we confirm exactly what your plan covers before any work begins - no surprise bills.