Legal Assistance For Seniors Inc

Health insurance counseling and advocacy program (hicap)-the alameda county hicap of las provides individual counseling, advocacy and community education on medicare, supplemental options, medicare advantage and prescription drug plans, long term care insurance, and screening and application assistance for low-income programs. The hicap department provides these services through 7 paid staff persons and 31 trained and state-registered volunteer counselors at 24 counseling sites throughout the county. Complex issues are referred to the legal department for assessment and action. In fy 2023/24, hicap counseled 1,903 individual clients and recorded 6,227 separate contacts with these clients. Hicap staff and volunteers contributed 2,075 counseling hours and an additional 1,136 hours of training, community education, and travel time. The legal department represented 33 clients with health law cases.

Community education-las provides group education presentations and agency representation at community events such as health and senior fairs. Legal presentation topics include consumer protection, elder abuse prevention, guardianship, housing, supportive information for aging in place, naturalization, and public benefits. In fy 2023/24, the legal department provided 287 presentations, reaching 8,843 people. Hicap presentation topics include medicare coverage and rights, options for supplementing medicare, low-income assistance programs for health care, medicare and consumer fraud, and long-term care insurance. Our hicap program participated in 148 community education events, reaching 6,428 attendees. Two full-time staff persons schedule and coordinate all the events and deliver most presentations and training in the county. One full-time staff provides data entry support.

Conservatorship -las is appointed by the alameda county superior court to represent conservatees. Las serves the conservatee, a person whom the court has deemed is unable to handle their personal affairs, financial affairs, or is susceptible to undue influence.