HIICAP: free Medicare counseling in the Capital Region

Capital Region HIICAP offices

Addresses and numbers from the county websites and the State Office for the Aging as of September 2026; confirm before visiting. Counseling is usually by phone or appointment, and many counties run walk-in sessions at libraries and senior centers during the Annual Enrollment Period.

What a HIICAP counselor does

• Explains Original Medicare, Advantage, Medigap and Part D without selling any of them.
• Runs your drugs through Medicare's Plan Finder and shows every plan sold in your county, including ones no local agent offers.
• Screens for the Medicare Savings Program, Extra Help and EPIC, and helps with the applications.
• Helps with appeals, denied claims, billing disputes and Medicare fraud reports.

What a licensed agent does

• Compares the plans I'm appointed with (eleven carriers in the Capital Region; not every plan in the area) against your doctors, hospital and prescriptions, and enrolls you. HIICAP can point at a Medigap policy; it can't write one.
• Is paid by the carrier, not by you, at commission rates Medicare caps for Advantage and Part D.
• Stays on the file: the prior-authorization problem in March, the Annual Notice of Change in September, the re-check every fall.
• Works in English and Turkish, weekdays and weekend mornings, by phone or at your kitchen table.

The honest summary: HIICAP is the right first call if you want a view of every plan with no sales interest; I'm the right call if you want the comparison done, the enrollment handled and someone to phone afterwards. Using both costs nothing and offends no one. If a counselor tells you the right plan is one I don't sell, take it; I'll say the same.

Other free help

• 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227): claims, coverage questions, Plan Finder help, 24 hours.
• Social Security, for Part A and B enrollment and Extra Help: the four Capital Region offices or 1-800-772-1213.
• Medicare Rights Center helpline, 1-800-333-4114: a New York nonprofit that handles appeals and complicated eligibility questions.
• Senior centers and libraries: the Clifton Park-Halfmoon library, the Saratoga Senior Center, the Troy and Schenectady senior centers host Medicare 101 sessions each fall; the county offices above keep the schedules.

I do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information I provide is limited to the plans I do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your State Health Insurance Assistance Program for information on all of your options. Not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government, the Social Security Administration or the federal Medicare program.