HONOLULU — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is giving money to Hawaii to help Medicare beneficiaries get more information about their health care choices.

The CMS said Thursday that Hawaii's state health insurance assistance program called Sage PLUS will receive $255,000.

Some of the money and similar grants to other states will be used to provide one-on-one counseling.

The rest will be used to conduct targeted community-based outreach to an increasing number and diversity of beneficiaries who may be unable to access other sources of information.

Hawaii's money is part of $41 million being distributed to state health insurance assistance programs as part of a total of $45 million that is available in 2010 for direct grants and support contracts.