First I would like to thank Secy Sebelius and her staff
for inviting me to be part of this distinguished panel
today.
I am the Project Manager for the Ohio SMP or Senior
Medicare Patrol Project at Pro Seniors, a not-for-
profit and wonderful agency serving older adults 60
and over throughout the state of Ohio with legal and
long-term care issues. I would also like to
acknowledge our great Executive Director, Rhonda
Moore who leads our great agency and had the fore
sight to apply for the SMP grant to the
Administration on Aging in 2002.
The SMP as it is called is a grassroots effort of
volunteers that help Medicare and Medicaid
beneficiaries prevent, detect and report healthcare
fraud. Our incredible group of volunteers are retired
Americans that help us fight the “good fight” to
eliminate the $60 billion dollars a year LOSS of
Medicare and taxpayer dollars that if recovered
could be utilized to provided additional Medicare
services such as the new preventative health care
services that Secy Sebelius has just spoken of here
today.
One year ago, Secy Sebelius challenged the 54 SMP’s
(one in every state and the Islands as well as the
District of Columbia) to place more “boots on the
ground” in the fight against Medicare fraud. Secy
Sebelius asked the SMP’s to recruit MORE SMP
Volunteers so we could raise a greater awareness of
the problem. I am happy to report that the Ohio
SMP delivered! With the incredible leadership of
our Volunteer Coordinator, Jane Winkler we doubled
the size of our volunteer network and I am proud to
say we now have 75 SMP volunteers in Ohio and I
have the privilege of introducing two of our
outstanding and nationally recognized volunteers;
Bob Wiggins from Hamilton County and Cincinnati
and Tom Gaumer from Cleveland and Cuyahoga
County. Bob was recognized at our National SMP
conference by the Administration on Aging in 2006
and Tom will be recognized on August 9th at the SMP
National Conference in Washington D. C. as one of
the 10 outstanding SMP volunteers in the country.
We are so very proud of our SMP volunteers that
lead our country in the fight against Medicare fraud,
waste and abuse.
Again, thank you Secy Sebelius for this great honor
to be part of your wonderful program here today!