G-2201-17315

The Center for Medicare Advocacy’s mission is to advance access to comprehensive Medicare coverage, health equity, and quality health care for older people and people with disabilities by providing exceptional legal analysis, education, and advocacy.
This proposal was submitted under the Drive Federal Oral Health Policy subprogram of the Advancing Equity through Oral Health Fund. The Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA) will continue developing and leading advocacy efforts toward a comprehensive Medicare oral health benefit. To this end, CMA will work with policymakers and Hill staffers as well as provide technical advice on legislative language, as well as strategic advice based on extensive knowledge of the Medicare program and history of changes to the program. The other priority activity described in this proposal will be CMA ramping up administrative efforts which include gathering and sharing evidence through public awareness materials such as brochures and videos. Historically, these activities are consistent with CareQuest Institute funding, though there would be more weight assigned to the latter given limited political and legislative movement at this time.
In addition to advocating for more comprehensive oral health coverage with Congress, there is an opportunity now to engage and persuade the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that they can legally cover medically necessary dental care with the current laws. CMA will engage several other partners and stakeholders in a series of listening sessions to advocate for dental coverage to CMS leadership. The process will also involve a discussion regarding the format, discussion points, and guests to invite for the presentation. Over the course of the grant period, the organization will strengthen its partnerships and intentionally collaborate with its broad network of advocates to respond to any questions about or changes to the legislative landscape. This participation may extend to the OPEN network as well. From an internal perspective, CMA has committed itself to equity and social justice learning and will continue to collaborate with historically marginalized and negatively impacted populations to secure proper oral health coverage.
The grant funds requested will be allocated primarily to staff salaries (80%) over several FTEs with travel, consultant fees, and software making up the remaining direct expenses. If approved, this grant would represent slightly more than 2% of the organization’s operating budget.