Case Study from National Council on Aging

How did NCOA help benefit enrollment agencies and funders use their resources in the most effective ways?

A quarter of Medicare beneficiaries forgo medications due to cost. That proportion rises to nearly 45 percent for low-income seniors lacking drug coverage. Improving this situation is a priority of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), a nonprofit organization which has been working since 1950 to enhance the health and independence of older persons.

NCOA’s leadership team watched with great interest in December 2003 as Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act, which included a drug benefit called Medicare Part D. They were excited by the new benefit’s promise for bringing prescriptions within low-income seniors’ reach. However, experience told them that enrollment would not be a simple matter—nor one the organization could tackle on its own.

In early 2005, with funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies, NCOA teamed up with the Bridgespan Group to develop a strategy for enrolling the greatest possible number of low-income seniors. Together they determined the true size of the challenge and researched agencies across the country to document strong enrollment practices. They then laid out a plan for sharing those practices with other agencies and for influencing funders—government and private—so that they could use their resources in the most effective ways.