Making ends meet should not mean going without your medications.
If you have limited income and resources, Medicare’s “Extra Help” program sets it up so this year you might pay no more than $2.60 for each generic drug and $6.50 for each brand name drug.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates that more than two million people with Medicare may be eligible for the subsidy, but are not currently enrolled to take advantage of these savings.
A recent law changed how your income and assets are counted:
Many people qualify and don’t know it
The changes that took place in 2010 allowed more people than ever to qualify for “Extra Help.”
Even if you were previously turned down for “Extra Help” due to income or resource levels, you should reapply.
If you qualify, you will get help paying for Medicare prescription drug coverage premiums, copayments, and deductibles.
To qualify, you must make less than $17,235 a year (or $23,265 for married couples).
Even if your annual income is higher, you still may be able to get some extra help. Your resources must also be limited to $13,300 (or $26,580 for married couples). Resources include bank accounts, stocks, and bonds, but not your house or car.
There’s no cost or obligation to apply
It’s easy and free to apply for “Extra Help.” You or a family member, trusted counselor, or caregiver can apply online at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/prescriptionhelp or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY users should call 1-800-325-0778). All the information you give is confidential.
Medicare beneficiaries can also receive assistance in their local communities from their State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), the Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC) and many tribal organizations.
For information about how to contact these organizations go to www.eldercare.gov .
To learn more about Medicare prescription drug coverage, visit www.medicare.gov , or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – On Oct. 8, a PBS Frontline documentary, “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis investigated the condition now known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which – up until recently – could only be fully diagnosed postmortem.
CTE has been most commonly found in athletes who experience repetitive brain trauma such as a concussion.
Symptoms associated with CTE may be dementia, memory loss, aggressive behavior, confusion and depression. There has been a tragic series of suicides associated with CTE.
Local Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital (HMH) speech language pathologist, Nancy Horowitz Moilanen, M.A.
CCC-SLP has conducted a breakthrough case study that may help treat NFL players in particular and anyone suffering from CTE.
Horowitz Moilanen presented her CTE treatment program on November 14, 2013 to an overflowing room at the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association’s (ASHA) national annual convention in Chicago, Illinois. “Executive Function Treatment: In the Face of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy – Lifesaving.”
“I presented a case study on a former NFL player who has a medical history of serial concussive injuries and whose 2009 MRI showed mild cortical volume loss (cerebral atrophy),” she said. “His neuropsychological testing showed dementia secondary to repetitive concussion from football and organic mood disorder secondary to multiple head trauma. Basically, he was experiencing multiple symptoms that have been associated with CTE.”
According to Horowitz Moilanen, the plan of care and treatment goals for this particular individual were co-developed with the patient.
“Treatment occurred over a 10 month period and was focused on neurological executive function skills; such as, learning problem solving strategies, goal setting, initiating tasks and self-inhibiting behaviors,” she said. “However, the turning factor in his treatment was supporting him in developing an education project about his struggles; one which could act as a 'prevention' program for others. This offered a sense of purpose and, at times a reason to push forward.”
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that there are between 1.7 and 3.8 million traumatic brain injuries in the United States each year. Of those, 17 percent will go on to develop into progressive symptoms such as are found in CTE.
Horowitz Moilanen, also wanted to point out, “this translates into 647,000 new cases a year. We have approximately 135,000 ASHA certified Speech-Language Pathologists. That means at any given time we, Speech-Language Pathologists in the school settings or hospital settings, could have at least 3-5 new cases a year!”
As for the former NFL player presented in Horowitz Moilanen’s case study research, changes in behavior resulted in an overall increased sense of self-esteem and personal empowerment. “The outcome resulted in the patient believing and understanding that he has a positive and effective role in choosing, daily, to cope with his challenges. Five months after therapy, he reported minimal episodes of pain and a distinct decrease in the myriad of symptoms he had been experiencing since 1989,” said Horowitz Moilanen.
Horowitz Moilanen also recently presented her CTE case study at the Intermountain Area Speech and Hearing Association’s 4 state convention in Denver, Colorado.
Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital is offers rehabilitation services including speech-language pathology, which can help treat a variety of medical disorders including, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, swallowing disorders, autism spectrum disorder and other neurological disorders including CTE.
For more information on the services provided by Nancy Horowitz Moilanen, please contact 707-459-3141.
In a study published in November in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers looked at the association of nut consumption with total and cause-specific mortality among 76,464 women in the Nurses' Health Study and 42,498 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
Consumption of nuts, including tree nuts (such as almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts), was inversely associated with total mortality in both men and women, independent of other predictors for death.
In addition, there were significant inverse associations for deaths due to cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease.
“Compared with those who did not eat nuts, individuals who consumed nuts (serving size of one ounce) seven or more times per week had a 20 percent lower death rate and this association was dose-dependent,” said lead author, Ying Bao, MD, ScD, from the Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. “Those who consumed more nuts were also leaner, and tended to have a healthy lifestyle, such as smoking less and exercising more,” added Dr. Bao.
This is the largest study to date to examine the relation between nut consumption and total mortality, and the results are consistent with previous studies, according to senior author, Charles Fuchs, MD, MPH, from the Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.
“The findings from our study and others suggest a potential benefit of nut consumption for promoting health and longevity,” said Dr. Fuchs.
Nuts contain important nutrients such as unsaturated fats, high quality protein, vitamins (I.e., vitamin E, folate and niacin) minerals (I.e., magnesium, calcium and potassium) and phytochemicals – all of which may offer cardioprotective, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
“With current nut consumption well below the recommended 1.5 ounces of nuts per day (in the FDA qualified health claim for nuts and heart disease) we need to continue to encourage people to have a handful of nuts every day,” recommended Maureen Ternus, M.S., R.D., Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation (INC NREF).
SACRAMENTO – Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and state health officer, announced the release of new reports summarizing healthcare associated infection (HAI) data, collected from California's hospitals in 2012 on several types of infections.
An updated, interactive map highlighting individual hospital information has also been released.
“These reports expand our knowledge of these dangerous infections and will ultimately result in better and safer care through increased awareness,” said Dr. Chapman. “CDPH will continue working with hospitals throughout California to improve healthcare associated infection surveillance, prevention and lower infection rates. Making this information public and easy to use will give consumers helpful information they can consider when making educated choices about their healthcare.”
The reports provide data from California's hospitals for the following types of infections:
This year’s reports show that California hospitals are nearing 100 percent participation with reporting compliance. Specific findings include:
California leads the nation in the number of HAI publicly reported and continues making this information more accessible to the public. Along with these new reports, CDPH has updated and expanded its interactive map of healthcare associated infections (HAI) for consumers. CDPH notes that any interpretation or comparisons of the HAI data should be made with caution. As more data becomes available over time, it will be easier to draw comparisons.
All California hospitals are required to report infection data electronically through the federal National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).