About KupunaHub

What This Site Does

Describe your situation in your own words, and KupunaHub matches you with the most relevant resources we know about: programs, official documents, plain-language explainers, and trusted partner organizations across Hawaii. If you would rather talk to a real person, you can request a callback from a counselor and one will reach out, free of charge, in your preferred language.

We built this site for the kinds of questions that are easy to ask out loud but hard to look up on your own: "Why did Medicare bill me for something I didn't get?", "Is this phone call a scam?", "How do I help my mom enroll?", "I'm new to caregiving, where do I start?"

Who We Serve

KupunaHub is for three groups, and we've tried to make every page work for all three:

• Kupuna. Older adults living in Hawaii who want clear, no-pressure answers about programs and protections that already apply to them.
• Caregivers. Family members, friends, neighbors, and paid helpers who are looking things up on a kupuna behalf. See the caregivers page for ways the site supports you specifically.
• Families. Anyone helping a parent, grandparent, or relative figure out a Medicare bill, an insurance choice, a scam call, or a transition in care.

The Two Programs Behind This Site

KupunaHub is a single front door to two long-running Hawaii programs. Both are free, both are confidential, and both are staffed by trained counselors.

SMP Hawaii: Senior Medicare Patrol

SMP Hawaii helps Medicare beneficiaries prevent, detect, and report Medicare fraud, billing errors, and abuse. If a charge on a statement doesn't look right, if a stranger is asking for your Medicare number, or if you suspect a scam, SMP is who you want.

Hawaii SHIP: State Health Insurance Assistance Program

Hawaii SHIP gives free, unbiased counseling on Medicare and the insurance choices that surround it: original Medicare, Medicare Advantage (Part C), prescription drug plans (Part D), Medigap supplements, Medicaid, low-income subsidies, vision and dental coverage, and how the marketplace fits in. SHIP counselors don't sell anything. Their job is to help you understand your options.

You don't have to know which program you need. Describe your question, and the site routes you to the right one (and to both, when your question spans both).

Who Backs This Site

KupunaHub is operated by the Executive Office on Aging, an attached agency of the Hawaii State Department of Health. The Executive Office on Aging is Hawaii's designated State Unit on Aging under the federal Older Americans Act, the agency responsible for coordinating services for older adults across all the islands.

The project is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Federal funding is what makes the counseling, the resources, and this site free for everyone in Hawaii to use. The exact federal-share percentage and grant amount appear in the footer of every page.

The site was designed and built by RaneWorks, LLC for the Executive Office on Aging.

How the Resource Finder Works

On the home page, you'll see a short form: pick a topic, describe your situation in a sentence or two, and click Get results. The site then does four things, in order:

1. Asks for a few details about you. Age group, zip code, primary language, and a few other items. These are required by the federal program that funds us so they can show who the service reaches. We collect them once per visit and never share or sell them.
2. Matches your question to relevant resources. KupunaHub uses an AI assistant (provided by Anthropic) to read your description and pick the resources that fit best. The AI doesn't see your name or any contact info; it only sees the question and the resource catalog.
3. Shows you the matches. Usually one to three results, each with a short summary and a way to read more, watch a video, download a document, or visit the partner organization's site.
4. Offers a counselor callback. If you'd rather talk to someone, fill out the short callback form at the bottom of the results. We route it to the right program (SMP or SHIP), and a counselor follows up in your preferred language.

What We Do With Your Information

We treat your information the way we'd want our own ohana's information treated. Specifically:

• We never sell or share your data with marketers. Nothing on this site is set up to make money off of you.
• Demographic details (age group, gender, zip code, etc.) are collected for federal grant reporting only. They are stored alongside your question so the funding agency can confirm the program is reaching the people it's meant to reach. They are not tied to your name or contact info on the public side.
• We never write down your IP address. When we do log network details to spot unusual traffic, we store a one-way hash, not the original address.
• Your contact information is only shared with the counselors who follow up on your callback request. It's used for that follow-up and nothing else.
• You don't need to sign up to use this site. There are no user accounts on the public side.

The site is also built to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards. See Accessibility & Language Access for the full statement.

This Site Is Free, and We Don't Sell Anything

KupunaHub does not sell insurance, Medicare plans, supplements, or any product. We have no financial relationship with any insurer, plan, or carrier. Counselors don't earn commissions and don't steer you toward a particular plan. The whole point is to help you understand your real choices.

Ready to Get Help?

The fastest path is to use this resource finder on the home page. Describe your situation, and you'll get matched answers within seconds, with the option to ask a counselor to follow up.

If you are a caregiver helping a kupuna with this, our For Caregivers page has tips for using the site on someone else's behalf.