Milly Quezada, 'Queen of Merengue,' to Launch Partnership to Educate Latino Seniors About Health C...( 'Su Salud. Su Voz.' Campaign to Addr...),Health

'Su Salud. Su Voz.' Campaign to Address Lack of Public Awareness of Right

to File Medicare Quality of Care Complaints

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Merengue Queen" Milly Quezada will join leaders of health care organizations and senior groups, along with public officials today at Manhattan's El Museo del Barrio to launch the Su Salud. Su Voz. Partnership to educate Latino seniors about their right to file Medicare quality of care complaints.

Ms. Quezada will serve as honorary chair of the partnership, which consists of IPRO, the Institute for the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Elderly, AARP New York and the New York City Department for the Aging. Media sponsors are El Diario La Prensa and Univision Radio. The partnership will help extend the Latino community reach of IPRO's campaign, Your Health. Your Voice. (Su Salud. Su Voz.), which seeks to raise New York seniors' awareness of their complaint rights under Medicare.

"We are excited to have such a respected artist, and such influential organizations, help us lead this campaign in the Latino community," says Clare B. Bradley, MD, MPH, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, IPRO. "We look forward to partnering with them to make the state's Latino seniors aware of their complaint rights." IPRO is a New York-based not-for-profit organization that contracts with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to improve the quality of health care provided to the state's Medicare beneficiaries, and to resolve beneficiary complaints and appeals. IPRO is contracting with CMS to conduct this educational campaign, with a special emphasis on minority and medically underserved communities.

A recent report by IPRO showed that, while New York has the second highest complaint rate in the nation, few of the state's seniors file complaints: 343, or .01% of the state's nearly 3 million Medicare beneficiaries filed complaints in 2007. While the overall nu
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