Flushing: applying for QMB, QI, and Extra Help when the household speaks Chinese or Korean

Flushing has one of the largest concentrations of older adults on Medicare in Queens, many of them living with an adult child's family in Murray Hill or Auburndale, or in senior housing near Main Street. Two things about the Medicare Savings Programs matter more here than almost anywhere else. First, the application counts only the applicant's income (or the couple's), not the income of the children whose house they live in. Second, the application and the counseling both exist in Chinese and Korean, so nobody has to rely on a storefront to translate. This page walks through both.

ZIP 11354 covers downtown Flushing and the north side, 11355 the south side toward Kissena Park, and 11358 Murray Hill and Auburndale. All approximate; verify with USPS. The county on any form is "Queens."

• HIICAP: 1-800-701-0501. Say "Queens" when asked for your county, then ask for a Mandarin, Cantonese, or Korean interpreter. Counseling is free and confidential.
• NY Connects: 1-800-342-9871 (Relay 7-1-1).
• Nearest in-person site: RAICES/Corona Senior Center, 102-47 43rd Avenue, Corona, NY 11368, 718-458-7259, weekdays 9 to 4, by appointment. From Flushing–Main Street take the 7 west to 103rd Street–Corona Plaza. Book through NYC Aging Connect at 212-244-6469 (ask for HIICAP).

HRA handles Medicaid and the Medicare Savings Programs for Flushing; there is no Flushing Medicaid office phone. The HRA Medicaid Helpline is 1-888-692-6116 and offers interpreters. Queens office locations are on nyc.gov/hra.

1. Work out the household for the application. For a Medicare Savings Program in New York, the household is the applicant alone or a married couple living together; the state's standards chart says "household size is always one or two." A parent living with a son or daughter is a household of one for this purpose.
2. Add up the parent's own monthly income: Social Security, any pension from abroad, any earnings. New York applies no resource test to QMB and QI. The 2026 limits on health.ny.gov are $1,836 a month for one person and $2,489 for a couple for QMB, and $2,474 and $3,355 for QI.
3. Call HIICAP with an interpreter and go over the numbers. The counselor will say whether QMB, QI, or full Medicaid is the right application and what each would change.
4. File DOH-4328 with HRA in Chinese or Korean if that is easier (the state publishes both), with copies of the Medicare card, ID, income proof, and a Flushing address document. A letter addressed to the parent at the family's home works for address.
5. Extra Help follows an approved MSP automatically. Nothing else to file for it.

• Reporting the whole family's income. A common reason Flushing applications are wrongly abandoned before filing is that someone added the adult children's earnings. For an MSP, only the applicant (and spouse) count.
• Paying a Main Street storefront to "do Medicaid." The application is free, HRA and HIICAP provide interpreters, and the form itself is printed in Chinese and Korean on health.ny.gov.
• Skipping the counselor because a relative "already asked at the clinic." Clinic staff on 39th Avenue know their own billing, not the household's income picture. HIICAP is the free, neutral place to ask.

NewYork-Presbyterian Queens on Main Street and Flushing Hospital Medical Center on Parsons Boulevard are the neighborhood's hospitals. The Flushing–Main Street station (7 train and LIRR) is the way to the Corona counseling site. None of these takes applications.