Patient Advocate Services in Nebraska, 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 Nebraska members pay $0. We confirm exactly what your coverage looks like before your first session, and there are no surprise bills.

Yes, all 93 counties. The service is fully virtual, delivered by phone, video, and secure messaging, so it works the same in Omaha, Lincoln, Bellevue, Grand Island, Kearney, Fremont, Norfolk, Columbus, North Platte, Scottsbluff, and every county in between. There is no office to travel to.

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 Nebraska's programs like Nebraska SHIP counseling from the Department of Insurance, the Medicare Savings Programs Nebraska DHHS runs, the HCBS Aged and Disabled Waiver, and PACE, and gives you their direct phone, email, and text, so you never start over with a stranger in a call queue.

Yes, and this is a recent change worth knowing. Under LB 852, effective January 1, 2025, any insurer that sells Medicare Supplement plans to people 65 and older in Nebraska must also offer coverage to beneficiaries who qualify for Medicare under 65 through disability. You get the same six-month Medigap Open Enrollment window, with no medical underwriting during it, and the premium cannot exceed 150% of what a 65-year-old pays. The catch is that only Plan A is guaranteed under 65, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease are not eligible before 65. When you turn 65 a fresh open-enrollment window opens for every plan, and the six-month clock is exactly where an advocate helps you not miss it.

Those are Nebraska Medicaid programs. The HCBS Aged and Disabled (AD) Waiver helps Nebraskans 65 and older (and adults with disabilities) who meet a nursing-facility level of care get in-home support so they can stay home instead of in a facility. Its AD Independent Provider option lets you hire and supervise your own worker, which can be a family member such as an adult child; a spouse or parent can be paid only through LRI Personal Care, and only when the care meets an "Extraordinary Care" standard. PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) bundles all care for adults 55 and older at a nursing-facility level, and in Nebraska it is offered by Immanuel Pathways in Omaha, serving Douglas and Sarpy counties. 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.

Nebraska SHIP (the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, reachable at 1-800-234-7119), is Nebraska's free Medicare counseling service, run by the Nebraska Department of Insurance with trained, commission-free counselors, and it is excellent for one-off questions. 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 Nebraska SHIP counselors for enrollment-season plan comparisons.

In Nebraska we are in-network for Original Medicare (traditional fee-for-service Medicare); UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans (~49% of Nebraska MA members). Together that covers roughly 82.5% of Nebraska's Medicare beneficiaries. Market-share data: 2025. Plan networks change, so we confirm exactly what your plan covers before any work begins - no surprise bills.