The Associated Press reports that accidental poisonings from
America's favorite pain reliever are rising. In fact, acetaminophen is now the leading cause of acute liver failure.
The main problem is people just take too much of the stuff thinking if two tablets is good then four will work even better.
The FDA says 56,000 people a year wind up in the ER due to acetaminophen overdoses, and about 100 people per year die from the overdoses (see CBS story from Jan. 2004; at the time, the FDA sent this warning letter to state pharmacy boards and this cautionary letter to consumers).
New Drug Plan Begins Jan 1
The new Part D drug plan begins Sunday and the pressure is on pharmacies and druggists to make it work. About 40 million senior citizens are eligible for the plan. About a million people have signed up so far. Another 10 million or so were signed up by the government or their HMO. Here is background for journalists from the National Press Foundation.
We will have to see if seniors who signed up for the program actually get their drugs. This is worth your time and effort to help explain and demystify in the slow post-Christmas news week. You have the airtime and the newsprint space -- use it to explain this in some depth.
CBS News recently produced an excellent and easy-to-understand story and posted resources on its Web site to help explain the drug plans. This is worth a look.
CBS' story said:
What follows is the best, step by step list of "how-to" pointers I can come up with after consulting with Medicare, with several insurance companies, and with non-profit groups that follow issues related to aging.
I won't sugar coat this. Finding the best deal will be work, but the upside is that, for a reasonable cost, you will be protected for life against a catastrophic loss of income or assets due to the cost of drugs.
So here goes.
- Before doing anything, make a list of the drugs you take, the dosage amount of each drug and the pharmacies you normally use. Have your Medicare number ready. If you have drug coverage now, through a retirement plan, your union or your employer, have the details of the plan ready, even if you have a notice telling you it's a "creditable" plan.
- If you are internet capable, go to http://www.medicare.gov. In the middle of the opening page, click on "Compare Medicare Prescription Drug Plans." This will get you started.
- If you are not Internet capable, then, with your list ready, call 1-800-Medicare, which is 1-800-633-4227. They have solved most of the long-wait problems you may have heard about. TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048.
- Either on the Web or with the Medicare phone counselor, enter your list of drugs, dosages and pharmacies.
- At this point, take a minute to determine if Medicare Part D is better than the coverage you have now. If your current coverage is superior, and you've been informed your current coverage is "creditable," you don't need to sign up for Medicare D.
- If, however, Medicare D is for you then the Web site or the phone counselor will give you a list of four or five insurance company plans that cover your drugs and your pharmacies in your state. They will quote you the yearly costs from each plan. Write down the phone numbers of the selected plans and the out-of-pocket cost quotes.
- Now you have an important choice. If you like what you are hearing from the Medicare counselor, or seeing on the Web, you can enroll directly at this point. Or you can keep shopping.
- If you decide to shop, call the selected plans directly. Confirm the coverage of your drugs and pharmacies and confirm the cost quotes you got from Medicare. If the plan is promising no deductibles, confirm this.
- When you shop, you should ask these plans if they require pre-authorization of your drugs. Pre-authorization of a covered drug is a hurdle you may not want.
Make your selection based on the following criteria:
Then enroll!
A couple of weeks ago, NPR pointed out that even those who have shopped and have enrolled may have problems next week:
As to the whether each patient's information will be in the system by Jan. 1, Tom Clark of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, isn't sure. He thinks there are about a million people who aren't in the system yet. These are people who were on Medicaid and who were automatically assigned to the new Medicare drug benefit.
"The worry is there will not be adequate time to get data into the system," he says, "and to get the data verified and tested prior to the Jan. 1 beginning of the Medicare drug benefit program."
The reason he's so skeptical is the government has missed at least two crucial deadlines in the past few months as they set up the program: one on putting the plan descriptions on the Web and the other on getting certain information into the database. The Jan. 1 deadline is the most important one because that is when the program goes live.
Medicare chief Mark McClellan says all the computer data that needs to be there by Jan. 1 will be there.
There's a third problem that could crop up Jan. 1: Customers could have so many questions about their new plans -- what they cover, what drugs cost -- that there will be long lines of people waiting for service.
The New York Times said:
People have until May 15 to sign up. After that, they may face penalties in the form of higher premiums. Federal officials say they expect a surge in enrollment just before the May 15 deadline.
This calculator from Kaiser allows users to enter their prescription drug costs to determine what they will pay under the standard Medicare prescription drug benefit beginning January 1, 2006. Enter annual drug costs below and click on the "Calculate" button.
Poker Popularity
USA Today included a story that is worth localizing. I suspect there will be New Year's Eve poker games aplenty this year.
Poker, once a pastime for cowboys in Wild West saloons but now a cash cow for cable TV, is at the forefront of a gambling craze that has swept colleges nationwide.
"The popularity of poker is absolutely phenomenal," says Elizabeth George, chief executive of the North American Training Institute, which specializes in dealing with problems of youth gambling. "It is head and shoulders over other types of college gambling."
"The word, conservatively, is 'epidemic,' " says Edward Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. He attributes poker's surge to its glamorization on TV shows such as Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown" and to the accessibility of the Internet and credit cards.
Half of college men say they have gambled on cards at least once a month this year, up from 45 percent in 2004, according to a study released in September by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center (PDF). About 15 percent of them played at least once a week in 2005, up from 2 percent in 2002. Only 1.6 percent of college women said they played weekly this year.
Card players are more likely than other gamblers to go online, the report says. It cites a fivefold increase in weekly Internet betting since 2002.
Experts say poker's popularity is the result of a trend toward greater acceptance of gambling in the USA -- from horse racing in the 1930s to bingo, lotteries, riverboats, Indian casinos and the Internet. Toy stores now sell poker sets, and public colleges offer courses and even majors on gambling and casinos.
What to Do With All That Swag
Newsrooms get loaded down with swag and food this time of year. What did lobbyists and others send elected officials for Christmas? Do your lobby laws require it all to be reported?
No Free Lunch for Babies
AP reported:
New moms at hospitals in Massachusetts will no longer get gift diaper bags filled with baby formula and other freebies, thanks to state health officials intent on promoting breast-feeding.
The ban on goodies from formula companies drew mixed reactions from mothers like Sarah Wood, who has a 15-month-old son.
"The pressure to breast-feed is good. The problem is it doesn't work out for everyone," she said, bemoaning the guilt some mothers feel.
The ban doesn't bar hospitals from giving out free formula. But it ends a longtime marketing practice that breast-feeding advocates say was designed to turn harried new mothers toward a less healthy alternative -- and implied an endorsement of formula by hospitals.
"There's no free lunch and there's no free gift," said Beth Sargent, an independent lactation consultant from Needham. "A gift is something given freely without the anticipation of a return. There is absolutely an anticipation of return."
Some Massachusetts hospitals had already stopped the gift bags, but Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said she believes it's the first time a state has written such a ban into its hospital regulations.
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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. 
