Elderplan/HomeFirst, the nonprofit senior health insurance organization, opened its first Brooklyn community office this week on the second floor of 6405 Seventh Avenue in Sunset Park, giving local seniors, people with disabilities, and caregivers a walk-in spot to sort out Medicare and Medicaid paperwork without leaving the neighborhood. The office held a ribbon-cutting celebration on Wednesday, marking the health plan's expansion into the borough for the first time.
The new office sits just two blocks from Elderplan's corporate headquarters at 6323 Seventh Avenue, according to NYC.gov. As reported by Brooklyn Paper, the storefront is a resource for Elderplan members seeking health-plan coverage and benefit-access information, and it offers prospective beneficiaries a place to learn about plans and enroll in person. It joins existing community offices in Flushing, Queens, and Washington Heights, Manhattan, both of which already offer similar in-person benefit advising and wellness activities.
A Local Push for Language-Accessible Help
State Senator Stephen Chan, whose district includes part of Sunset Park, said the new office makes quality healthcare resources more accessible, and he added that he looks forward to continued partnership supporting community health and well-being, per the same report. Council Member Susan Zhuang, who chairs the council's Committee on Aging and represents part of the neighborhood, put the need more bluntly: older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers need a community office in Sunset Park, she said, because people do not know what they qualify for and the paperwork is not in their language.
That framing lines up with the neighborhood's demographics. Brooklyn Community District 7, which covers Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, has one of New York City's highest rates of limited English proficiency, with 42.3% of residents reporting difficulty speaking English, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Sunset Park is also home to 32,922 Chinese speakers, giving the district the fourth-largest Chinese-speaking population of any community district in the city, behind Flushing, Elmhurst, and Chinatown, per the Asian American Federation.
What the Office Actually Does
Beyond Medicare Advantage enrollment guidance, the community office provides direct, in-person assistance with SNAP food stamp applications and Medicaid recertifications, help meant to prevent eligible seniors from losing coverage over administrative snags, according to Elderplan. David Wagner, president and CEO of MJHS Health System and Elderplan/HomeFirst, said the health plan is committed to addressing the healthcare needs of current and future members, and he called the Brooklyn office an important milestone in the plan's continued growth, per Brooklyn Paper's report.
Elderplan/HomeFirst offers plans for residents of nursing homes, assisted living, and independent care communities, as well as special needs plans for members who are nursing-home-certifiable but living at home. HomeFirst, one of the original managed long-term care plans in New York State, opened enrollment statewide in 2001 and earned a 5-star rating in the most recent New York State Department of Health consumer guide. The plan cares for members who need help with daily activities to remain safely at home, and its coverage spans Medicare and dual Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries at every level of health, with the broader goal, shared across Medicare Advantage plans, of closing gaps in healthcare access.
Roots Going Back to 1907
Elderplan/HomeFirst's parent organization, MJHS Health System, traces back to 1907, when four women known as the Four Brooklyn Ladies went door-to-door soliciting donations to open a nursing facility for vulnerable elderly Brooklyn residents, according to the MJHS Foundation. That grassroots effort grew into a system that now cares for roughly 76,000 New Yorkers annually across the five boroughs and surrounding counties, per Cause IQ. Elderplan and its sister plan Elderserv together account for more than 8% of Medicaid managed long-term care enrollment downstate, making MJHS one of the region's largest MLTC providers, according to LeadingAge New York.
Statewide demand for managed long-term care is substantial: New York's MLTC program had 333,060 enrolled individuals as of December 2023, with 81% of them living in New York City, according to the New York State Department of Health. Eldercare, founded in 1985, was one of the first Medicare social HMO demonstration projects in the country, laying groundwork for the kind of coordinated senior coverage Elderplan/HomeFirst now offers.
Timing Amid Senior Center Turmoil
The Sunset Park opening comes not long after the neighborhood's main senior hub faced its own existential scare. The United Senior Center of Sunset Park, which has served the area for more than 50 years with multilingual social work and daily meals, was threatened with closure after a 70% rent increase before securing emergency city and state funding last month, as Hoodline reported in its rent hike rescue story. That earlier standoff, which Hoodline also covered when the center first faced closure in 2025, left a lasting sense of urgency around senior services in the neighborhood.
The new Elderplan/HomeFirst community office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with weekend hours available by appointment. Visits can be scheduled online through Elderplan.org or by calling (866) 360-1934.
