National Hispanic SMP Program
Programa Nacional Hispano SMP para Prevenir el Fraude al Medicare

Data shows that the populations most vulnerable to fraud are those affected by poverty, low levels of education, little or no English skills, and a lack of culturally and linguistically competent resources.

Therefore, Hispanic older adults are less likely to become aware of or not know what to do when then become targets for fraud against government entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. This leads to costly errors in healthcare-related billing, and misuse of taxpayer dollars.

In light of this, the Administration on Aging (AoA) granted NHCOA the funds to develop and implement the National Hispanic SMP, an off-shoot of the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) initiative. The National Hispanic SMP (NHSMP) is the only Medicare fraud prevention program that uses culturally and linguistically appropriate tools and resources to close the gap in Medicare fraud education among Hispanic older adults, their families, and caregivers. The NHSMP program was launched in Rio Grande Valley, Texas in 2005 and expanded into southern Florida in mid-2011.  

NHSMP also provides technical assistance to organizations working with older adult populations, so they can more effectively expand their reach to Hispanic seniors, while meeting the demands of our increasingly diverse older adult population.

The goal of the program is to create a replicable and sustainable model that builds on existing opportunities and creates synergies among different organizations. To this end, NHCOA is in the process of conducting needs assessments in five SMP states with a high concentration of Hispanics. The purpose of the needs assessment is to identify needs and opportunities for increasing Medicare fraud awareness and education prevention among Hispanic older adults as well as address challenges that local CBOs— including those implementing the SMP program— face in effectively reaching the Hispanic senior community.