SHINE in Florida: How the State's Medicare Counselors Work and How to Reach Them

Florida's SHINE counselors logged 41,556 contacts with Medicare beneficiaries in the 2024-25 grant year, with 324 volunteers doing the work, according to the Department of Elder Affairs. The number to reach them is 1-800-963-5337 (1-800-96-ELDER). With 33 days left in Medicare Open Enrollment, that's the number I'd write on the fridge.

SHINE stands for Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders. It's Florida's State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), run by the Department of Elder Affairs through the state's 11 Area Agencies on Aging. Medicare's handbook puts it plainly: SHIPs aren't connected to any insurance company or health plan.

I'm a licensed agent, so I'm not a neutral party on that last point. That's exactly why I think every Floridian on Medicare should know how SHINE works, what it won't do for you, and how to get on a counselor's calendar before December 7.

Source: SHINE, Contact Us; Dept. of Elder Affairs, 2025 Year in Review, p. 60; Dept. of Elder Affairs, 2024 Year in Review; Medicare & You 2027.

What SHINE is

SHINE describes itself as a program "offered by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs and your local Area Agency on Aging," where specially trained volunteers help with Medicare, Medicaid and health insurance questions one-on-one. Its own words for the service: "free, unbiased, and confidential."

The program started serving Floridians in 1993. Its money comes from a federal grant through the Administration for Community Living (ACL) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Elder Affairs says the grant amount is based on how many Medicare beneficiaries live in the state, adjusted for concentrations of low-income and rural beneficiaries. The legal footing is Section 4360 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 and section 430.07 of the Florida Statutes.

Every state has a program like this. ACL counts 54 SHIP grantees: the 50 states plus Puerto Rico, Guam, Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands, working through more than 2,200 local sites. The Medicare & You 2027 handbook puts the key point plainly: SHIPs "aren't connected to any insurance company or health plan."

Who can use it? Elder Affairs is clear: all Medicare beneficiaries, plus their representatives, family members and caregivers. You don't have to be 65 (people on Medicare because of a disability qualify too), you don't have to meet an income test, and you can call on behalf of a parent.

What a SHINE counselor does, and where your question really gets decided

Elder Affairs lists the subjects: Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care insurance, prescription assistance, supplement (Medigap) insurance, preventive benefits, fraud prevention, cost-saving programs and beneficiary rights. Counseling happens in person at local sites, by phone and email, and over video.

The thing to understand is that SHINE explains, compares and helps you fill out forms. It doesn't approve anything. Knowing who makes the final call saves you a second trip:

Source: Elder Affairs, 2025 Year in Review, p. 59; Fla. Admin. Code R. 65A-1.702 (DCF Medicare Savings Programs); Medicare.gov, Help with drug costs; Florida DFS, Consumer Services.

The cost-saving piece deserves its own line. SHINE also runs Florida's MIPPA program, which exists to find low-income people with Medicare who qualify for help with premiums, deductibles and copays but never applied. If money is tight, read our guides to the Medicare Savings Program in Florida and Extra Help in Florida before the appointment, so you know which documents to bring. In Orange County, SHINE's listing even sets aside Thursdays at Senior Resource Alliance for Medicare Savings Program and Extra Help applications.

How to reach SHINE

Three doors, and you can use more than one.

1. Call 1-800-963-5337 (1-800-96-ELDER). That's the statewide number on SHINE's contact page and the one Medicare lists for Florida in the 2027 handbook. TTY users call 1-800-955-8770. Some county listings call the same number the Elder Helpline.
2. Use the online request form. It asks for your name, date of birth, email, ZIP code, county and the best time to call, and lets you pick personalized help, a presentation, literature or a counseling-site location. SHINE says it will connect you with a counselor in your area.
3. Call your region directly. SHINE's counseling sites directory lists sites county by county, from library meeting rooms to senior centers, most by appointment only. A sample of the numbers those pages give:

Source: SHINE counseling sites: Miami-Dade; SHINE counseling sites: Broward; SHINE counseling sites: Palm Beach; SHINE counseling sites: Lee; SHINE counseling sites: Sarasota; SHINE counseling sites: Hillsborough; SHINE counseling sites: Orange; SHINE counseling sites: Duval; SHINE counseling sites: Escambia; SHINE counseling sites: Leon.

Two practical notes from reading those listings on November 4. Many sites are phone-only or "by appointment only," so don't just show up. And some sites run only through early December: The Long Center in Clearwater lists Tuesdays through December 8. Miami-Dade's office notes counseling in English and Spanish.

If you'd rather learn first and talk later, SHINE started a round of virtual Medicare classes on Zoom on November 2 (you can join by computer or phone). This week's calendar, November 2 to 6, includes Medicare 101, an Open Enrollment session, a Part D overview, and a class on setting up a Medicare.gov account and using the Plan Finder. Times are Eastern; registration links are in the weekly calendar PDF.

When to call: Open Enrollment math

Open Enrollment for 2027 coverage runs October 15 through December 7, 2026. In that window you can join, switch or drop a Medicare Advantage plan or a drug plan, or go back to Original Medicare. Whatever you pick starts January 1, 2027.

Do the math: 324 volunteers for 67 counties, and much of the demand lands in the same few weeks. If you want a sit-down appointment, my advice is to call this week, not the first week of December. If you miss December 7, there is a second, narrower window for people already in a Medicare Advantage plan; we cover it in our post on the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period.

Source: Medicare & You 2027, p. 14.

What to bring

A counselor can only compare what's in front of them. Before you sit down (or pick up the phone), gather:

• Your Medicare card and every other card you use: any plan card, Medigap card, drug plan card, Medicaid card, retiree or VA/TRICARE card.
• Your Annual Notice of Change if you're in a Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare says plans send it by September 30; it lists what changes on January 1.
• A list of every prescription with dose and how often you take it. This is what the Plan Finder comparison runs on.
• Your doctors and your pharmacy. Networks matter in any Medicare Advantage comparison.
• Your Medicare.gov login, or be ready to make one. SHINE's own class schedule includes help setting this up.
• Rough monthly income and savings if you think you may qualify for help with costs, plus any letter you don't understand.

SHINE by the numbers

Elder Affairs publishes SHINE's activity every year in its department overview. The count it reports is beneficiary contacts, not unique people, so one person who calls three times can count more than once. Here's the trend:

020,00040,00060,000

53,706

40,798

38,221

34,914

38,050

41,556

19-2020-2121-2222-2323-2424-25

Source: Dept. of Elder Affairs, 2025 Year in Review, p. 60; 2019-20 from 2024 Year in Review

Show the numbers

	Beneficiary contacts
19-20	53,706
20-21	40,798
21-22	38,221
22-23	34,914
23-24	38,050
24-25	41,556

Contacts fell from 53,706 in 2019-20 to a low of 34,914 in 2022-23, then climbed back to 41,556, up 19% from the low but still 23% below 2019-20.

The volunteer count is the number I watch. It dropped 22%, from 413 to 324, over the same period. Contacts per volunteer have barely moved (about 130 then, about 128 now), which tells me the program's reach depends on how many people sign up to counsel. If you're retired and know Medicare, SHINE recruits through the same 1-800-963-5337 number.

0200400600

413

383

384

379

360

324

19-2020-2121-2222-2323-2424-25

Source: Dept. of Elder Affairs, 2025 Year in Review, p. 60; 2019-20 from 2024 Year in Review

Show the numbers

	Volunteers
19-20	413
20-21	383
21-22	384
22-23	379
23-24	360
24-25	324

Elder Affairs says SHINE also operates two related federal programs, and it reports them separately. Here's how the three compared in the latest year:

Source: Dept. of Elder Affairs, 2025 Year in Review, pp. 59-60.

SHINE is also Florida's Senior Medicare Patrol

This surprises people. In Florida, the Senior Medicare Patrol isn't a separate office: Elder Affairs says SHINE operates the statewide SMP, and the national SMP locator lists 1-800-963-5337 as Florida's number for SMP services. SMPs exist in every state under ACL to help people prevent, detect and report health care fraud, errors and abuse; Elder Affairs says SHINE and SMP help beneficiaries report suspected Medicare waste and abuse to HHS and its Office of Inspector General.

Open Enrollment is prime season for it. Medicare's own marketing rules give you a quick filter: plans and their representatives, including agents, can't come to your home uninvited or call or text you unless you're a member or gave permission, and an agent you meet with can't charge you an enrollment fee. If someone does any of that, hang up and call SHINE or 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) yourself. Check your Medicare Summary Notices for services you never got. For complaints about an insurer or an agent's conduct in Florida, the Department of Financial Services takes calls at 1-877-MY-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236).

Source: SMP Resource Center, Florida locator; ACL, Senior Medicare Patrol; Medicare.gov, Marketing rules for plans and agents; Florida DFS.

SHINE or a licensed agent?

Straight answer from the other side of the table. Agents who sell Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are generally paid commissions by the companies whose plans they sell. Federal rules (42 CFR 422.2274 and 423.2274) cap and regulate that pay; they don't remove it. Medicare also requires an agent to tell you how many organizations they represent and how many plans they offer in your area before discussing plan benefits, and to point you to Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE for all your options.

SHINE isn't connected to any insurance company or health plan, and you pay nothing for the counseling. Its limit is capacity: a few hundred volunteers for the whole state.

My read: use both if you want. Get an independent check from SHINE on anything an agent recommends, and if you've already decided, an agent can handle paperwork and service. What I'd avoid is making a Medicare decision based only on a TV ad or a call you didn't ask for. For a broader look at how coverage works here, see our Florida Medicare overview and the page on Medicare Supplement insurance in Florida.

Source: Medicare.gov, Marketing rules; 42 CFR 422.2274 (eCFR); 42 CFR 423.2274 (eCFR).

Snowbirds: which state's counselor do you call?

Every state runs its own SHIP. My suggestion: call the program where you are when you need help, and tell the counselor you split the year. A SHINE counselor in Naples can explain how a plan works in Florida; your home state's program knows the plans and the Medigap rules up north. Our Medicare guide for snowbirds covers the coverage side, like what happens to a Medicare Advantage plan when you're out of its service area.

One name trap: Massachusetts also calls its program SHINE, short for Serving Health Insurance Needs of Everyone, with a different number. Here are the programs for some of the states Florida's seasonal residents come from, as Medicare lists them:

Source: Medicare & You 2027, pp. 114-117.

FAQ

What is SHINE in Florida?

SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders) is Florida's State Health Insurance Assistance Program, run by the Department of Elder Affairs with the state's 11 Area Agencies on Aging. Trained volunteers give unbiased, confidential Medicare counseling at no cost.

What is the SHINE phone number in Florida?

Call 1-800-963-5337 (1-800-96-ELDER). TTY users can call 1-800-955-8770. You can also use the request form at floridashine.org or call the SHINE number listed for your county.

Who is eligible for SHINE counseling?

The Department of Elder Affairs says all Medicare beneficiaries, their representatives, family members and caregivers are eligible. There is no income test.

Does SHINE sell insurance?

No. SHINE is funded by a federal grant and isn't connected to any insurance company or health plan. Counselors explain options and help with applications; you make the decision.

Can SHINE help me report Medicare fraud?

Yes. SHINE operates Florida's Senior Medicare Patrol, which helps people prevent, detect and report Medicare fraud, errors and abuse. Call 1-800-963-5337.

Medicare rules, Florida law and your own coverage documents control what applies to you. Confirm your situation with SHINE, 1-800-MEDICARE, the Florida Department of Financial Services or a licensed agent, and talk to an attorney about legal questions.

Sources

1. SHINE (Florida Department of Elder Affairs): Home
2. SHINE: Contact Us
3. SHINE: Counseling Sites
4. SHINE: Community Events
5. SHINE: Virtual Medicare classes, week of Nov. 2, 2026 (PDF)
6. SHINE counseling sites: Miami-Dade
7. SHINE counseling sites: Broward
8. SHINE counseling sites: Palm Beach
9. SHINE counseling sites: Lee
10. SHINE counseling sites: Sarasota
11. SHINE counseling sites: Hillsborough
12. SHINE counseling sites: Pinellas
13. SHINE counseling sites: Orange
14. SHINE counseling sites: Duval
15. SHINE counseling sites: Escambia
16. SHINE counseling sites: Leon
17. Florida Department of Elder Affairs: 2025 Year in Review (Department Overview)
18. Florida Department of Elder Affairs: 2024 Year in Review
19. Florida Department of Elder Affairs: Reports and plans
20. SMP Resource Center: Florida SMP locator
21. ACL: State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP)
22. ACL: Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP)
23. Medicare & You 2027 handbook
24. Medicare.gov: Marketing rules for Medicare health and drug plans
25. Medicare.gov: Help with drug costs
26. 42 CFR 422.2274: Agent, broker and other third-party requirements (eCFR)
27. 42 CFR 423.2274: Part D agent, broker and other third-party requirements (eCFR)
28. Florida Administrative Code Rule 65A-1.702: Special Provisions (DCF Medicaid and Medicare Savings Programs)
29. Florida Department of Financial Services: Consumer Services