Medicare News
| For Immediate Release: | Contact: |
| Tuesday, November 27, 2001 | CMS Office of Public Affairs 202-690-6145 |
For questions about Medicare please call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit www.medicare.gov. |
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TOWSON, MD., RESIDENT HONORED FOR WORK TO INFORM MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES
Wayne Gegorek, a Towson, Md., resident, has received an award for helping inform Medicare beneficiaries and their families about the health care program for elderly and disabled people by producing informative videotapes.
Gegorek was selected by Tom Scully, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as employee of the month for November. CMS is the former Health Care Financing Administration HCFA).
A 24-year HCFA employee, Gegorek works as an audiovisual production specialist for the agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid. Gegorek is one of about 2,800 employees in the agency's Baltimore headquarters.
Since 1991, Gegorek has produced dozens of Medicare and other health-related public service announcements, training videos and documentaries for Medicare audiences and for doctors and other health care providers, as well as for CMS staff. He started producing live satellite TV broadcasts on health-related Medicare topics in 1995 when HCFA moved into a new Baltimore headquarters building.
"I congratulate Mr. Gegorek for helping beneficiaries get the information they need to make the health care decisions that are right for them," Scully said. "The materials he produces tell them where they can get more details about Medigap, Medicare+Choice and other Medicare programs."
CMS recently launched a national education program to help the nearly 40 million people with Medicare take advantage of resources available to them to answer their questions about Medicare options.
The campaign included the mailing of an updated Medicare and You 2002 handbook to 34 million Medicare beneficiaries' homes. Last year, CMS released a documentary produced by Gegorek on "Medicare and You 2001, Start the Presses." The 19-minute video outlined the extensive efforts by CMS staff and printing contractors to produce, within strict deadlines, the Medicare and You 2001 handbook.
As the documentary's producer, Gegorek's activities included coordinating script development, directing interviews with CMS staff officials and editing the final videotape. Since its release in 2001, the video has helped explain the Medicare handbook's production process to many CMS staff members, other government agencies and printing contractors.
On a special assignment, Gegorek produced in 1998, "Standing in the Safety Zone, Baltimore Remembers the 1918 Flu Epidemic," starring Emmy Award winner, Andre Braugher. The video, designed to remind Medicare beneficiaries to get their annual flu shot, was one of the five episodes in the Living Well Series, a guide to healthy aging underwritten by HCFA. The series continues to be shown occasionally on cable television, including the Fox Health Network.
"I think it is exciting to bring a written script, full of visual ideas and creative messages, to life on the TV screen," Gegorek said. "I have available a multi-talented production staff and diverse professional and amateur actors at selected and varied location sites."
A Baltimore native, Gegorek grew up in Towson and served six years in the Naval Reserve including two years on active duty. He received a bachelor's degree in mass communications in 1980 from Towson University.
A 36-year career federal employee, Gegorek worked for the Civil Service Commission and Social Security Administration (SSA) before coming to HCFA when it was created as a separate agency from SSA in 1977.
