Understood Care
Patient Advocacy Without the Call Center
One dedicated advocate for the bills, appeals, appointments, and paperwork. Fully virtual, serving all 62 New York counties, usually at $0 with Medicare.
Or call (646) 904-4027. We confirm your coverage before your first session.
Since January 2024, Medicare covers professional healthcare navigation (Principal Illness Navigation and Community Health Integration). Part B pays about 80%; a Medigap plan typically covers the rest, so most members pay $0.
Acceptance varies plan by plan. Tell us which plan you have (Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and others) and we confirm what it covers before any work begins. No surprise bills, ever.
That is a normal place to start. Read your red-white-and-blue card to us over the phone and we will explain your coverage in plain English, whether or not you sign up.
Medicare is federal, but the rules around it change at the state line. These four are specific to New York, and your advocate works with them every week.
New York law requires year-round continuous open enrollment and community rating for Medigap. Insurers must accept you in any month, and your premium cannot go up because of your age or health. Most states give one six-month window at 65; New Yorkers keep this right for life.
New York's Health Insurance Information, Counseling and Assistance Program runs a statewide helpline at 1-800-701-0501 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm) with 700+ trained counselors routed by county. Great for one-off enrollment questions; we point our own members there during Open Enrollment.
The Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage program lowers drug costs for New Yorkers 65+ with income up to $75,000 (single) or $100,000 (married), with copays from $3 to $20. Info line: 1-800-332-3742. Many eligible seniors have never heard of it.
New York's Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program lets family members be paid caregivers, now administered statewide through Public Partnerships LLC (PPL). It is a Medicaid program; for dual-eligible families we handle the Medicare side while you run the caregiving. See our guides below.
You are matched with one dedicated advocate and get their direct phone, email, and text. No call queue, no starting over. Even months after your case wraps up, the same person picks up.
Behind your advocate, AI tools surface the New York programs and benefits you actually qualify for, from EPIC to county services, so answers come faster. A human stays in the loop on every case.
While your case is active you hear from your advocate every 7 days. After it is resolved, they still check in every month. You are never left wondering what is happening.
Researched, sourced, and kept current for New York families:
How CDPAP and Medicare fit together for New York families.
Eligibility, choosing your caregiver, and how to apply.
Current PPL pay rates by region, explained in plain English.
All 62 incorporated New York cities plus the five boroughs, served virtually by the same advocates:
New York City · Brooklyn · Queens · Manhattan · The Bronx · Staten Island
Yonkers · Mount Vernon · New Rochelle · White Plains · Peekskill · Rye · Poughkeepsie · Beacon · Newburgh · Middletown · Port Jervis · Kingston
Albany · Cohoes · Watervliet · Troy · Rensselaer · Schenectady · Saratoga Springs · Mechanicville · Glens Falls · Hudson
Buffalo · Lackawanna · Tonawanda · Niagara Falls · North Tonawanda · Lockport · Dunkirk · Jamestown · Salamanca · Olean · Batavia
Rochester · Canandaigua · Geneva · Auburn
Utica · Rome · Sherrill · Little Falls · Amsterdam · Gloversville · Johnstown
More than 3.5 million New Yorkers are on Medicare, and the system is not
getting simpler. Wherever you live in the state, your advocate is a phone
call away, and the first conversation costs nothing.
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 New York members pay $0. We confirm exactly what your coverage looks like before your first session, and there are no surprise bills.
Yes, all 62 counties. The service is fully virtual, delivered by phone, video, and secure messaging, so it works the same in Brooklyn, Buffalo, the Bronx, Long Island, Westchester, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and every rural 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 New York's programs like HIICAP, EPIC, and CDPAP, and gives you their direct phone, email, and text, so you never start over with a stranger in a call queue.
CDPAP is a New York Medicaid program (administered statewide through Public Partnerships LLC), and many families we serve use it. 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 CDPAP caregiving, and your parent's advocate handles the Medicare paperwork. Our CDPAP guides below answer the most common questions, including pay rates.
Yes. New York is one of the very few states with year-round continuous open enrollment and community rating for Medigap by state law. Insurers must accept your application any month of the year, and your premium cannot be raised because of your age or health. Most states only give you one six-month window at 65; New Yorkers keep the right for life. An advocate can help you compare plans before you switch.
HIICAP is New York's free Medicare counseling program (1-800-701-0501), 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 members to HIICAP counselors for enrollment-season plan comparisons.
Program facts on this page were last verified on 2026-07-18 against: NY State Office for the Aging (HIICAP), NY State Department of Health (EPIC), Medicare Rights Center (New York Medigap rules), and CMS (2024 Physician Fee Schedule: navigation services). Understood Care is an independent private advocacy service and is not affiliated with any government agency, HIICAP, or EPIC.
