California’s Department of Insurance recently updated their charts of companies selling Medigap policies in California. This is a good resource for any beneficiary choosing to supplement his/her Medicare insurance with a Medigap policy.  In brief, Medigap policies are a form of private supplemental insurance that pay for part or all of Medicare’s coinsurance and deductibles. Certain policies also cover health care costs that Medicare doesn’t cover, such as emergency medical care in foreign countries, and excess charges from a provider who does not accept Medicare assignment (accepting Medicare’s payment as payment in full). Unlike certain Medicare Advantage plans, Medigap policies do not restrict beneficiaries to a network of providers and facilities. Those who have a Medigap policy, can see any doctor or use any hospital that accepts Medicare.

The California Department of Insurance has two charts posted on their website. One is for companies selling policies to people with Medicare who are younger than 65 and one is for companies selling policies to beneficiaries 65 and older. Both charts also include comments on any restrictions imposed by the companies in selling their policies.

See our Medigap section for more information on this form of supplemental insurance. Also learn about your rights as to when an insurance company is required to sell you a Medigap policy regardless of health condition or age.

Educational program key to addressing the epidemic of opioid overdoses Training bystanders to recognize and respond to drug overdoses can significantly reduce the number of fatalities, finds a study published on bmj.com today. Overdoses of opioid drugs are a major cause of emergency hospital admissions and preventable death in many countries.

A new study could provide the link that scientists have been looking for to confirm that reactivation of a latent herpes virus is a cause of some heart problems.

Looking at blood samples from 299 heart patients, researchers at Ohio State University found that those who had suffered a heart attack were the most likely to have inflammatory proteins circulating in their blood compared to patients with less acute symptoms. And having more of one of these proteins in the blood was linked to the presence of antibodies that signal a latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation.

To date, these relationships have been hard to find because scientists have been unable to detect evidence of a virus in diseased areas of the cardiovascular system.

Excessive alcohol use accounts for 4% of the global burden of disease, and binge drinking particularly is becoming an increasing health issue. A new review article published in Cortex highlights the significant changes in brain function and structure that can be caused by alcohol misuse in young people.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released updated guidelines allowing Public Housing Agencies (PHA) to approve “exception” rents for housing leased by people with disabilities in the Housing Choice Voucher program. The exception will be 120 percent of the Fair Market Rent and allows people to rent in the private housing market. This policy is temporary until March 31, 2014, and the PHA must email HUD that it is adopting the 120 percent policy.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched a new initiative called Acceptable Clinical Evidence (ACE) that could eliminate in-person medical examination for some Veterans. This would shorten the time it takes to process disability compensation claims. The initiative is part of a five-year transformation plan to eliminate the claims backlog and process all claims within 125 days by 2015.

A research team in Israel has devised a novel approach to identifying the molecular basis for designing a drug that might one day decrease the risk diabetes patients face of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The team will present its work at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa. A recent study suggests that people who suffer from type 2 diabetes face twice the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life compared to those who do not have diabetes.

The treatment of central nervous system (CNS) diseases can be particularly challenging because many of the therapeutic agents such as recombinant proteins and gene medicines are not easily transported across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Focused ultrasound can be used to “open the door” of the blood brain barrier.

The shortened daylight of a Maine winter may make for long, dark nights – but it has shone a light on a novel experimental approach to fighting inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), an especially deadly form of breast cancer. The new approach enlists the active form of Vitamin D3, called calcitriol, which is delivered therapeutically by quantum dots. Quantum dots are an engineered light-emitting nanoscale delivery vehicle.

Even as the labor force ages and a large number of baby boomers are entering their sixties, retirement experts are not sure they can predict when these older workers will exit the workforce. Yet, if organizations want to capitalize on their workforce investments and prevent skill shortages in the long run, they must adequately manage the retirement process, not just of older workers but also of workers at mid-career.

HBSC, is one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the world, serves around 60 million customers through four Global Businesses. This global megabank HSBC has committed unthinkable crimes,  violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws by transferring hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of terrorists in the Middle East and drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia.

But to date, HSBC has been able to simply write off punishment for this criminal behavior as a mere business expense — paying a $1.9 billion fine, or roughly 12 percent of the company’s reported $16 billion profit for 2011.

How can that be, you may ask?

In short, it apparently is because the behemoth bank has been deemed by certain government officials as not only “too big to fail” but also “too big to jail.”

The Cuban government has made a substantial investment in biotechnology in a drive to battle cancer, the country’s second leading cause of death, after cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 31,000 new cancer diagnoses are made in Cuba each year, and that 21,000 patients die of the disease annually. Dr Josa Luis Di Fabio, the head of the WHO Country Office in Cuba, said: “Cancer is one of the major killers in Cuba. This is partly because people live longer but also because many have adopted unhealthy lifestyles.

Neither the Democratic nor the Republican versions of the Violence Against Women Act survived the last Congress. Now Democrats, headed by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, vow immediate action on a new Violence Against Women Act that does little to alter current flawed policies on domestic violence. The long hiatus in Violence Against Women Act authorization represents a golden opportunity to get right what we’ve gotten wrong for so long.

The newest tuberculosis (TB) vaccine choice, that had previously shown success in increasing levels of immune response in adults, has now demonstrated that it does not have this effect in babies. The authors of this study, which was published in The Lancet, suggest that the findings are ‘disappointing’ and imply a critical roadblock in furthering the study of tuberculosis.

Due to that chronic diseases are so prevalent among older adults, many seniors take multiple prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. Therefore it is not unusual for at least one of these medications to have a side effect that is detrimental to their oral health.

For example, antihistamines, diuretics, antipsychotics, and antidepressants can reduce salivary flow which can result in dry mouth. Dry mouth is one of the most common side effects of both prescription and over-the-counter medications. Having a dry mouth can cause difficulty chewing, speaking, and swallowing. It also increases the risk of developing cavities and soft tissue problems. Dry mouth may also decrease the ability to wear dentures

Increased patient engagement is of particular interest regarding patients with mental health needs, given the high burden of mental illness in the United States and the potential for greater patient engagement to improve health outcomes. Little is known about the extent to which these patients ask questions of their physicians; how physicians respond; and what the relationship is between patients’ questions and visit outcomes.

A study was conducted based on an in-depth mixed-method analyses of 322 audio recordings of primary care visits by people with mental health needs. Patients asked many questions around  fifteen per visit, but that they were more likely to ask about biomedical topics, such as diabetes, than about mental health topics. Patients received highly varied responses from physicians.   The study’s  findings suggest that efforts aimed at improving patient engagement should move beyond simply encouraging patients to ask questions. The goal should also be to support physicians in recognizing patients’ concerns and providing the most responsive answers, as well as promoting strong relationships to undergird communication among all members of the care team.