The SHIBA volunteers of San Juan County are extremely grateful for the support that the Inter Island Healthcare Foundation has provided over the past two years. Without their support and backing our program would have ended.

In March of 2021 the SHIBA volunteers, who help residents in the islands with Medicare in San Juan County, learned that their long-time sponsor would not be continuing their sponsorship of the program with the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

We were extremely fortunate that the Inter Island Healthcare Foundation stepped into the breach and graciously agreed to become the sponsor for the program for the 2-year period ending June 30, 2023. This allowed our volunteers to continue to educate people about Medicare, to help them sign up for the coverage that worked best for them, and to help resolve coverage, billing and fraud problems while we searched for a long-term sponsor.

We are extremely grateful to the members of the Inter Island Healthcare Foundation board for their support of our program during the past two years. They understood the value of the service provided by our volunteers and made it possible for us to continue helping people in the County. We would also like to publicly recognize the efforts of one board member, Evan Perollaz, who became our interface with the Board and helped us meet the terms of the sponsorship contract with the Insurance Commissioner’s office.

Now the Orcas Senior Center has become the sponsor for our group and we are tremendously appreciative of the commitment their board made to support the service that we provide.

Thank you to both organizations for making it possible for us to continue providing free, unbiased and confidential assistance with Medicare to people in our county.

SHIBA volunteers of SJC