Ridgewood: Queens County rules on the Brooklyn line

Ridgewood's ZIP code, 11385, crosses the Queens and Brooklyn line, and the neighborhood's hospital, its shopping street, and half its bus routes are shared with Bushwick. For Medicaid home care that creates one recurring problem: people write "Kings" on a form because their doctor is in Brooklyn, when their address is in Queens County. The programs themselves are identical on both sides; the county routing is not. Ridgewood's older population includes long-time Polish-, German-, and Italian-speaking households in the rowhouses north of Myrtle Avenue and a growing Spanish-speaking community closer to Wyckoff Avenue.

ZIP 11385 (approximate; verify with USPS). Ridgewood proper is in Queens County. If your address is on the Bushwick side of the line, it is Kings County, and the Brooklyn hub on this site applies. When unsure, check your address on the Department of City Planning's borough map or ask NY Connects.

NY Connects, 1-800-342-9871 (Relay 7-1-1); say "Queens." HIICAP, 1-800-701-0501, for free Medicare counseling; say "Queens." The nearest NYC Aging in-person HIICAP site in Queens is the Sunnyside Community Senior Center at 43-31 39th Street (718-784-6173 x411, by appointment), reached by the M train to Queens Plaza and a transfer, or by bus. Brooklyn sites on the citywide listing are also open to city residents, but confirm by phone first.

Medicaid is HRA, citywide, 1-888-692-6116, and the same office network serves both sides of the line. HRA's long-term care page lists the DSS OneNumber, 718-557-1399, for home care questions. Locations are on nyc.gov/hra.

1. Medicaid active, with the correct county on the case. If HRA has you in the wrong county, fix that first; NYIA's routing follows the Medicaid record.
2. Call NYIA, 1-855-222-8350 (TTY 1-888-329-1541), and request Polish, Spanish, or another interpreter at scheduling.
3. Nurse assessment, then clinical appointment, at home or by video.
4. Outcome letter. For people first assessed on or after September 1, 2025, the Department of Health's Minimum Needs Requirements apply; the letter reflects the assessor's findings, not anything a family can pre-score.
5. New York Medicaid Choice (1-800-505-5678, long term care 1-888-401-6582) for MLTC plan selection. Ask which plans list Queens County.
6. Plan visit, care plan, and services. Hours are the plan's decision.

• Writing "Brooklyn" because the hospital is in Brooklyn. Wyckoff Heights Medical Center sits on the line, and its discharge paperwork does not decide your county. Your address does.
• Letting a Brooklyn-based plan representative assume the case is Kings County. Plan enrollment through New York Medicaid Choice runs on the county in the Medicaid record. Confirm it on the first call.
• Assuming a rowhouse owner past 60 without Medicaid has to sell or spend down before any help. NYC Aging's in-home services program through Aging Connect, 212-244-6469, is for residents 60 and older who are not on Medicaid and is contribution-based.

Orientation only: Wyckoff Heights Medical Center on the Bushwick and Ridgewood line. Its location is the reason this page spends so much time on county names.