What We Do

What can ICAN do for me?

  • We can answer your questions related to Medicare, Medicaid, long term care (for example, your home care or nursing home care), and your managed care plan.
  • We can help you decide what plan is right for you.
  • We can help you solve problems with your managed care plan or providers like doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies. For example, we can help you complain or appeal.

Who does ICAN help?

  • We help anyone in a Medicaid managed care plan who needs long term care services (like home attendant, adult day care, or nursing home).
  • We also help people who are applying for Medicaid and need help enrolling in a Managed Long-Term Care (MLTC), Medicaid Managed Care (MMC), Fully Integrated Duals Advantage for people with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (FIDA-IDD) plan, and Health and Recovery Plans (HARPs).
  • We can talk to friends, family members, and anyone else who is helping people with their medical decisions.

How does ICAN work?

  • The New York State Department of Health selected CSSNY and its partners to create the ICAN program.
  • ICAN provides direct assistance to Medicaid managed care enrollees who need long term care or behavioral health services. ICAN helps people navigate their coverage, understand and exercise their rights and responsibilities.
  • ICAN has trained health counselors who answer a toll-free telephone hotline five days a week from 9 AM to 5 PM.
  • Our health counselors can answer your questions about Medicaid managed care plans, including MLTC, HARP, and “mainstream” Medicaid managed care plans that provide long term care services.
  • Our counselors can also help you solve problems with your Medicaid long term care services, including:
    • Help you choose and enroll in a plan
    • Help you get more services from your plan
    • Help you get services in your home instead of an institution
    • Help you report problems with your care
  • ICAN gives presentations to groups of professionals and consumers throughout New York State on Medicaid managed care and long term care programs
  • ICAN collects data about the kinds of problems people are having, and we report those trends to the government and propose solutions