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Changes to Medicare Advantage

By Jim Miller

If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, the new health care reform law will most likely affect your benefits in the coming years. Here’s what you should know.

Right now, around 24 percent of Medicare beneficiaries receive coverage through one of thousands of Medicare Advantage plans rather than Original Medicare. Advantage plans – private Medicare plans sold by insurance companies that are typically available through HMOs and PPOs – have become enormously popular over the past few years because they offer a host of extra benefits that Original Medicare doesn’t provide like free eyeglasses, dental care, hearing aids and even gym memberships.  Read More >> 

What you Should Know About Generic Drugs

By Amanda Covey, Pharm.D.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cites that 7 out of 10 prescriptions dispensed in the United States are filled with generic drugs.  But do you really know what a generic drug is?

Let’s begin with the origin of a generic drug.  A generic drug starts as a brand name drug.  A brand name drug is the first version of the medication that a drug company develops.  The drug company spends a great deal of money and time on research and development of the new drug to make sure the drug is safe and effective for human use.  The drug company then presents their research to the FDA for approval of the new drug.  At this time, the FDA grants a patent for the drug, but the drug is not yet released to the public.  After thorough evaluation by the FDA, the drug will then be approved and released onto the market.  Patents on drugs last 20 years from the date they are issued, meaning that the company that developed the new drug is the only company that can manufacture and sell the drug for the length of the patent.  This is the reason that not all brand name drugs have generics available.  A good example is a class of drugs that lower cholesterol called “statins.”   Lipitor® is a well-known brand name “statin” that does not yet have a generic because of its original patent protection.     Read More >>

Advocating For Yourself On Health  Issues

By Eva Mor, PhD Author of “Making the Golden Years Golden”

 As we age and more health conditions afflict us, there are more specialists that we see and more documents that represent our medical history unfortunately, in most cases, all this documentation is dispersed among many doctors. If you have had any hospitalizations or emergency room visits, your records are in the hospital. If you have a condition that requires the care of a specialist, he or she will have your records. If you require multiple specialists, each one will have records related to the treatment they provide.  Read More>>

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