Specifications include, but are not limited to:The primary purpose of the HICAP program is to provide Medicare beneficiaries and those imminent of becoming eligible for Medicare with counseling and advocacy as to Medicare, private health insurance, and related health care coverage plans on a statewide basis, and preserving service integrity. HICAP provides three basic services. The first of these is community education on health care-related issues. The second component is lay counseling, advocacy, direct assistance and intervention on billing and claims, access to care, and health care delivery systems, as well as health and long-term care insurance policy and certificate analysis. Finally, HICAP provides legal representation or referral for Medicare-related appeals and grievances when issues cannot be resolved at a less formal level. Direct service contractors shall be responsible for, but not limited to, the following: 1. Community education to the public on Medicare, long-term care planning, private health and long-term care insurance, managed care, and related health care coverage plans. 2. Counseling and informal advocacy with respect to Medicare, long-term care planning, private health and long-term care insurance, managed care, and related health care coverage plans. 3. Referral services for legal representation or legal advocacy that includes establishing and maintaining a formal system of coordination and referral from counseling services. It shall not include the filing of lawsuits against private insurers or managed health care plans. 4. Educational services supporting long-term care education activities aimed at the general public, employers, employee groups, senior organizations, and other groups expressing interest in long-term care planning issues. 5. Educational services emphasizing the importance of long-term care planning, promotion of self-reliance and independence, and options for long-term care. 6. Support additional emphasis on community educational activities that would provide for announcements on television and in other media describing the limited nature of Medicare, the need for long-term care planning, the function of long-term care insurance, and the availability of counseling and educational literature on those subjects. 7. Recruitment, training, coordination, and registration, with the department of health insurance counselors, including volunteer counselors designed to expand services on as broadly a basis as possible. 8. Develop a systematic means of capturing and reporting all required
