Help  Patients Apply for Extra Help
Some Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for Extra Help to pay for the costs,monthly premiums, annual deductibles, and prescription co-pays related to a Medicare prescription drug plan. In some cases, the Extra Help can be worth an average of $3,900 per year.

Starting on Jan. 1, 2010, changes in the law make it possible for more people to qualify for the Extra Help. Under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, Social Security:

• Will no longer count as a resource any life insurance policy; and
• Will no longer count as income any help received regularly from someone else to pay an individual's household expenses—food, mortgage, rent, heating fuel or gas, electricity, water, and property taxes.

You can help your patients by letting them know about these positive changes in the law and encouraging them to apply using the Extra Help application at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/i1020. You also can refer them to the Extra Help fact sheet for more information.