Ohio Senior Health Insurance program gets grant funding

COLUMBUS — Ohio Lieutenant Governor and Department of Insurance Director Mary Taylor announced the department’s Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program received a $1,701,188 grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

OSHIIP, funded by CMS and the state, provides information and counseling about health-care choices to the state’s 1.9 million Medicare beneficiaries.

“This grant will allow OSHIIP to continue its statewide educational outreach and assist Medicare eligible beneficiaries,” Taylor said. “This grant helps Ohioans get answers to questions about Medicare and helps them understand a program that may otherwise seem daunting.”

Grants for the current funding year are available from CMS to the 54 SHIP organizations in the United States and its territories from April 1 through March 31, 2012. The OSHIIP funding came from nearly $46.5 million being distributed by CMS to SHIPs.