Page 12 September 27 , 2012 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Seniors Getting Answers to Your Medicare Questions By David Sayen local Health Insurance Counseling With Medicare open enrollment you by calling this toll-free number: 800- Health insurance isn’t the easiest thing to and Advocacy Program, or HICAP. season coming up (it runs from 434-0222. understand. But if you have Medicare, there’s H I C A P p r o v i d e s f r e e , Oct. 15 to Dec. 7), you may be HICAP isn’t affiliated with any insurance a variety of help resources you can turn to. personalized counseling to people thinking about joining a Medicare company and won’t try to sell you insurance. One is Medicare’s toll-free help line, with Medicare. You can speak with health or drug plan, or switching (Funded through federal grants, the program 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). a trained HICAP counselor over the from one plan to another. HICAP is operated by the California Department Trained representatives are available 24 hours phone or in person. The counselor can help you choose a plan that of Aging.) Your name will never be passed a day, every day of the year to answer your will give you accurate, unbiased best meets your needs in terms of along for commercial purposes and your questions about your Medicare coverage. advice about your Medicare benefits cost, coverage, and convenience. A personal health information will be kept All people with Medicare receive a copy and how to get the most out of them. counselor can sit down with you strictly confidential. of the “Medicare & You” handbook in the HICAP counselors can help you with and help you compare various plans until HICAP’s only goal is to help you get the mail each fall. This booklet has a wide range questions about Original Medicare, Medicare you find the right one. They also can help best possible health care under your Medicare of information about what Medicare covers Advantage plans, Medicare supplement you enroll in that plan. coverage. and what it costs. It includes details about (Medigap) policies, Medicare Part D Let’s say you take multiple prescription David Sayen is Medicare’s regional Original Medicare as well as privately-run prescription drug plans, Medicare Savings medications. A HICAP counselor can enter administrator for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Medicare health and prescription drug plans Programs, and long-term care insurance. all your drugs into Medicare’s Plan Finder and Nevada. You can always get answers that you can join. Got a problem with a medical bill? HICAP tool (available through www.Medicare.gov) to your Medicare questions by calling Another useful resource is Medicare’s can help you deal with it. HICAP counselors and search for plans that cover your drugs. 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). consumer-friendly website, at www.Medicare. are volunteers and they’re often enrolled The counselor will then help you compare gov. Among other things, the website has tools in Medicare themselves, so they know the plans based on monthly premiums, co-pays, “Obstacles are put in our way to that let you compare Medicare health and drug issues. They can help you understand your and any restrictions that may apply. plans. (You can also look for local hospitals, Medicare rights, file a complaint if you feel If you have a low income, the counselor see if we really want to reach our skilled nursing homes, home health agencies, you got inadequate care from a hospital or can help you apply for the “Extra Help” goals or if we just thought we did.” and dialysis centers that best fit your needs.) other healthcare provider, or file an appeal program, which helps pay your costs in a Yet another terrific way to get your questions if your Medicare health or drug plan denied Medicare drug plan. ~ Alyssa Farmer answered is to make an appointment with your you a service. You can reach the HICAP office nearest Looking Up Finance World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Opens Eye, When Seniors Need Records First Images in Hunt for Dark Energy Financial Assistance By Bob Eklund will probe the mystery of dark energy, the Eight billion years ago, rays of light from force they believe is causing the universe to distant galaxies began their long journey to expand faster and faster. By Jason Alderman on generics. (These discounts will Earth. That ancient starlight has now found The Dark Energy Camera is the most When the last national census was gradually increase until 2020 when its way to a mountaintop in Chile where the powerful survey instrument of its kind, able taken in 2010, 48 percent of the the doughnut hole will disappear newly constructed Dark Energy Camera, the to see light from over 100,000 galaxies up to population was classified as poor altogether.) most powerful sky-mapping machine ever eight billion light-years away in each snapshot. or low-income (earning less than The IRS tax code includes created, has captured and recorded it for The camera’s array of 62 charged-coupled 200 percent of the poverty level). several benefits that target seniors the first time. devices has an unprecedented sensitivity to Anyone who’s ever tried to live on (and often, other lower-income That light may hold within it the answer to very red light—a feature important in this a low income knows how difficult taxpayers), including: one of the biggest mysteries in physics—why survey because the light from distant galaxies it can be to make ends meet when A higher standard deduction the expansion of the universe is speeding up. is strongly shifted to the red side of the cost increases for essentials like amount for most people who don’t Scientists in the international Dark Energy spectrum. Along with the Blanco telescope’s healthcare, housing, food and energy outpace itemize deductions if they and/or their spouse Survey collaboration announced last week large light-gathering mirror (which spans their earnings. This can be especially challenging are over 65 or blind. that the Dark Energy Camera, the product of 13 feet across), the new camera will allow for seniors living on a fixed income. An additional tax credit for lower-income eight years of planning and construction by scientists from around the world to pursue The good news is there are literally people who are over 65 or disabled and file scientists, engineers and technicians on three investigations ranging from studies of asteroids thousands of federal, state and private a 1040 or 1040A tax form. (For full details continents, has achieved first light. The first in our own solar system to the understanding assistance programs designed to help seniors and eligibility, see IRS Publication 524 at pictures of the southern sky were taken by of the origins and the fate of the universe. and others cover their basic needs. Your www.irs.gov.) the 570-megapixel camera on September 12. Scientists in the Dark Energy Survey challenge might be finding ones for which Free tax return preparation assistance and “The achievement of first light through collaboration will use the new camera to you’re eligible. Here are a few suggestions: counseling from IRS-trained volunteers is the Dark Energy Camera begins a significant carry out the largest galaxy survey ever The nonprofit National Council on available to people over age 60, as well as undertaken and will use that data to carry Aging offers BenefitsCheckUp (www. low-to-moderate income folks and military out four probes of dark energy, studying benefitscheckup.org), a free, confidential families. galaxy clusters, supernovae, the large-scale web-based service that helps seniors and IRS Publication 554 provides comprehensive clumping of galaxies and weak gravitational their caregivers find financial assistance for help for seniors to prepare their tax returns. lensing. This will be the first time all four healthcare, housing, food, utilities, in-home Many government-sponsored benefits, of these methods will be possible in a single services and much more. After answering grants and financial aid programs exist to experiment. several questions, you’re issued a personalized help seniors, low-income families and others The Dark Energy Survey is expected report describing programs and services for pay their bills, including: to begin in December, after the camera which you may be eligible, including links LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy is fully tested, and will take advantage of to their websites and applications. Assistance Program) provides grants to help the excellent atmospheric conditions in the Several government-sponsored programs pay utility bills. To see if you qualify, go to Chilean Andes to deliver pictures with the help people with limited income and resources www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap. sharpest resolution seen in such a wide-field pay for medical coverage, including Medicaid SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance astronomy survey. In just its first few nights and Medicare. For a good round-up of these Program) helps millions of lower-income Zoomed-in image from the Dark Energy Camera of the center of testing, the camera has already delivered programs, go to www.medicare.gov and click Americans buy nutritious food each month. of the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae, which lies about 17,000 images with excellent and nearly uniform on “Get Financial Help.” Visit www.fns.usda.gov/snap for qualification light years from Earth. Credit: Dark Energy Survey Collaboration. spatial resolution. Most pharmaceutical companies offer requirements. new era in our exploration of the Cosmic Over five years, the survey will create patient assistance programs (PAPs) that Rental assistance for low-income families Frontier,” said James Siegrist, DOE associate detailed color images of one-eighth of the provide uninsured and low-income people is available from several U.S. Department of director of science for high-energy physics. sky, or 5,000 square degrees, to discover and access to prescription drugs they couldn’t Housing and Urban Development programs “The results of this survey will bring us measure 300 million galaxies, 100,000 galaxy otherwise afford. Ask your doctor, pharmacist as well as other state and local agencies (see closer to understanding the mystery of dark clusters and 4,000 supernovae. or health clinic for details. Other good www.hud.gov/renting/index.cfm for details). energy and what it means for the universe.” The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is supported resources include: Medicare’s alphabetical Go to www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Benefits. The Dark Energy Camera was constructed at by funding from the U.S. Department of list of drugs available through PAPs (www. shtml for a comprehensive overview of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fermi Energy; the National Science Foundation; medicare.gov/pap/index.asp); Partnership for additional aid programs. National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, funding agencies in the United Kingdom, Prescription Assistance (www.pparx.org); And of course, don’t forget to ask about Illinois and mounted on the Victor M. Blanco Spain, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland; and RxAssist (www.rxassist.org); and NeedyMeds senior discounts whenever you shop, travel telescope at the National Science Foundation’s the participating DES institutions. (www.needymeds.com). or buy insurance – 10 percent here and there Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Photos and background information: In addition, as a result of the Affordable Care can really add up. Chile, which is the southern branch of the http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_ Act, Medicare Part D participants who reach Jason Alderman directs Visa’s financial U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory releases/DES-DECam-201209-images.html the so-called doughnut hole coverage gap now education programs. To Follow Jason (NOAO). With this device, roughly the size http://www.noao.edu/news/2012/pr1204.php receive a 50 percent discount on brand-name Alderman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ of a phone booth, astronomers and physicists https://www.darkenergysurvey.org • prescription drugs and a 14 percent discount PracticalMoney. •
Torrance 9.27.12
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