Corona: D-SNPs, IB-Dual, and the “default enrollment” letter

Corona is a working-class neighborhood of two- and three-family houses and small apartment buildings along 103rd Street, 108th Street, and Junction Boulevard, with many older adults on Medicaid managed care who are reaching Medicare age after years of work. A meaningful number already receive home care through Medicaid, which means the default enrollment letter they get may be the long-term-services version that points toward a Medicaid Advantage Plus plan rather than IB-Dual.

This page is for Corona residents and their families who want to understand that letter, who are unsure which version they received, or who simply want to know where the free counselor is. Corona has one, on 43rd Avenue. This page cannot decide your coverage or enroll you.

Corona is in Queens County, and Medicaid is administered citywide by the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA). ZIP 11368 covers Corona and North Corona (approximate; verify with USPS), from Roosevelt Avenue south to the Long Island Expressway and east to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The county on every form is Queens.

There is no hospital inside Corona itself. The nearest public hospital is NYC Health + Hospitals / Elmhurst on 79th Avenue, a few stops west, and Flushing’s hospitals are a few stops east. Which of those a specific D-SNP lists in its Medicare network is the practical question, along with the storefront clinics and pharmacies along Roosevelt Avenue and Junction Boulevard.

The 103rd Street–Corona Plaza, 111th Street, and Junction Boulevard stations on the 7 line are the neighborhood’s spine, and the HIICAP site on 43rd Avenue is close to 103rd Street–Corona Plaza.

Because so many Corona residents already have Medicaid home care, the first thing to figure out is which letter you received. The non-long-term-services version says you will be enrolled in the plan’s D-SNP under IB-Dual. The long-term-services version says you will be enrolled in a MAP plan, which changes who manages your home care. Both give at least 60 days’ notice and both allow opting out by calling or writing the plan, but the consequences differ, so bring the letter itself to 43rd Avenue.

Many Corona households have one adult who handles all the family’s paperwork. That person can sit in on the HIICAP appointment, but the counselor will want to speak with the person named on the letter, so plan for both of you to be there.