Manhattan (New York County): Medicare Savings Programs, Extra Help, and HIICAP

Manhattan's county is New York, which is the answer that trips up more forms than any other in the city. Medicaid and the Medicare Savings Programs are administered by HRA, whose main offices are in lower Manhattan but whose phone line is the same citywide number. NYC Aging's own HIICAP unit is also downtown, at 2 Lafayette Street, and that makes Manhattan the one borough where the program's headquarters and a walk-in-by-appointment counselor are the same place.

Manhattan has a wider income spread inside a single ZIP code than anywhere else in the state, and the people this page is for are often invisible in it: a long-time tenant in a rent-stabilized apartment on the Upper West Side living on Social Security alone, an older couple in a Washington Heights walk-up whose income is just above the Medicaid line, a person in public housing on the Lower East Side who has Medicaid but is still having the Part B premium deducted, or a retiree in Harlem over 65 who has never checked EPIC because "that is for poor people." None of those situations is decided by the neighborhood. Each is decided by household income against a published limit, and this page explains how to find out.

HRA administers Medicaid. There is no New York County Department of Social Services. People 65 and over, people with disabilities, and people on Medicare apply to the NYC Human Resources Administration. The Medicare Savings Program application (DOH-4328) is filed with HRA, and questions go to the HRA Medicaid Helpline. Manhattan Medicaid office locations are listed on nyc.gov/hra; this site does not print them because they move.

HIICAP is delivered by NYC Aging. The statewide HIICAP line asks for your county; say "New York" or "Manhattan." NYC Aging's HIICAP unit at 2 Lafayette Street sees people weekdays by appointment, and the citywide listing shows three more Manhattan community sites: the Chinese-American Planning Council on Eldridge Street, a Friday-afternoon program at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library on Fifth Avenue (online booking only), and a members-only site on West 66th Street. Book through Aging Connect.

Two more doors. Extra Help is a Social Security application. EPIC is a state program for people 65 and older who are in a Part D plan and do not have full Medicaid. HIICAP counselors handle all of this in one conversation and can tell you which application to start first.

HRA requires proof of residency, identity, income, and immigration status, plus proof of Medicare. For a Manhattan MSP application, that typically means:

• Medicare card or the Social Security letter with your Medicare start date.
• Photo ID or another accepted identity document.
• Income proof: Social Security benefit letter, pension statements, pay stubs, any rental or other income.
• Proof of a Manhattan address: lease, utility bill, or official mail. For NYCHA tenants, a rent statement works.
• Citizenship or immigration documents when electronic verification fails.

New York does not apply a resource test to the Medicare Savings Programs, so bank and brokerage statements are typically not required for an MSP-only application. They are required for full Medicaid. Send copies. HRA generally defers an incomplete application rather than denying it, so a missing paper is a delay, not a rejection. The full list is on nyc.gov/hra.

For orientation only: NYC Health + Hospitals / Bellevue on First Avenue; NYC Health + Hospitals / Harlem on Lenox Avenue; NYC Health + Hospitals / Metropolitan in East Harlem; NYC Health + Hospitals / Gouverneur on the Lower East Side; NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia in Washington Heights; Mount Sinai Hospital; Mount Sinai Morningside; Lenox Hill Hospital; and NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell. None is a place to file a Medicaid or Medicare application.