Officials ordered or urged tens of thousands of Orange County residents to evacuate after a leak involving methyl methacrylate at GKN Aerospace. The chemical, used in plastics and resins, is flammable and can cause health effects including breathing problems, nausea, nosebleeds, skin irritation and, in serious cases, hospitalization.

State officials declared an emergency, and about 50,000 people were told to follow evacuation directions. Public agencies announced shelters, care centers and hotlines for residents seeking help.

But disability advocates say those resources do not necessarily amount to a workable evacuation plan for people who cannot simply get into a car, drive away and sleep in a public shelter.

For a bedbound senior who depends on a caregiver, leaving home may require medical transport and continuous personal care. A resident who uses a power wheelchair may not be able to ride in a standard vehicle. Hospice patients, people who rely on oxygen, those needing dialysis, wound care or hospital beds, and residents with complex medical conditions may not be safe in a crowded gymnasium or community shelter.

Kelley Barrett, a retired nonprofit administrator who advocates for people with disabilities, said the Garden Grove incident exposed a persistent gap in emergency planning: public notices often tell residents where to go, but do not clearly explain how people with serious care needs will be identified, contacted, transported and housed safely.

Standard shelters may be suitable for evacuees who can walk, manage their own medication, use public restrooms, tolerate crowds and sleep on a cot. They are far less practical for residents who need caregivers, medical equipment, accessible bathrooms, wheelchair charging, oxygen support or medically appropriate placement.

Advocates are calling for counties to maintain active “access and functional needs” evacuation systems that go beyond written plans or website postings. Such systems, they argue, should include coordination with In-Home Supportive Services, Adult Protective Services, hospice providers, home health agencies, senior housing sites, regional centers and medical baseline programs.

They also say evacuation operations should include accessible transportation, medical transport, caregiver access, medication support, language access and shelters equipped for people with disabilities or significant health needs.

The Garden Grove emergency also has prompted calls for more transparency after major evacuations. Advocates say counties should report how many in-home care recipients, hospice patients, home health patients and oxygen-dependent residents were in evacuation zones; how many lacked transportation; how many were contacted directly; and where medically fragile residents were ultimately taken.

Those destinations could include accessible shelters, medical shelters, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, hotels or relatives’ homes. Without public reporting, advocates say, it is difficult to know whether vulnerable residents were safely assisted or left to make their own arrangements.

The concerns are not aimed at firefighters, police officers or emergency workers, who often respond under dangerous conditions. Rather, advocates say the issue is whether emergency systems are built to include people who cannot self-evacuate.

California has emphasized aging in place, disability rights and health equity, but emergency planning must reflect those commitments, advocates say. When officials tell the public to leave, they argue, there must also be a clear plan for those who cannot leave without help.

The Garden Grove chemical emergency has therefore become about more than the contents of a leaking tank. It has also become a test of whether disaster planning in Southern California protects residents who are elderly, disabled, homebound or medically fragile.

Original source: CalMatters

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The California Department of Aging is revising its intrastate funding formula, the method used to divide state and federal aging dollars among local agencies. The state’s goal is to better align funding with need and improve equity across regions.

But Los Angeles County aging officials warn that the proposed formula could have serious consequences in large, high-demand communities. Maral Karaccusian, director of the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities Department, said the plan does not fully account for the scale and complexity of serving older adults in the state’s most populous county.

Across Los Angeles County, thousands of seniors rely on publicly funded meals each day. Some receive food delivered to their homes, while others gather for meals at senior centers and community sites. For many older adults, those programs provide more than nutrition; they also offer regular contact with others and a way to remain safely at home.

According to projections cited by county officials, Los Angeles County could see a 17% reduction under the proposed funding approach. That could translate into nearly 186,000 fewer meals served annually at community locations and more than 157,000 fewer home-delivered meals each year.

Combined, the reductions would amount to roughly 1,300 fewer meals per day.

County officials say the concern is not with the state’s effort to modernize the formula, but with how the proposed model weighs different factors. The formula considers age, income, disability and geography, giving them roughly equal weight. Critics argue those factors do not drive demand for services in the same way.

Low-income older adults, for example, are more likely to rely on publicly funded meal programs and supportive services. Dense urban counties also operate at a different scale than smaller regions, serving larger numbers of seniors with complex needs.

Los Angeles County serves about one-quarter of California’s older adults, including large numbers of low-income seniors and those requiring more intensive support. Officials also point to growth in the county’s aging population, noting that Los Angeles County added more than 92,000 older adults in a single year.

If the formula does not adequately reflect those realities, they argue, money could shift away from areas with the greatest demand. Other large regions with significant senior populations could face similar pressure.

Advocates say the state should test alternative versions of the formula before making a final decision, to ensure the system reflects actual service needs and does not unintentionally reduce access to food and care.

California has made aging in place and independent living major policy goals in recent years. Local officials say those commitments depend on funding systems that work not only in statewide calculations, but also in the communities where seniors rely on daily services.

Original source: CalMatters

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For years, advocates say the Social Security Administration has struggled to keep up with its growing workload. Its current staffing is already at a 50-year low, but President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk have set their sights on cuts: The agency plans to cut 7,000 jobs and close 47 offices, NPR reported.

That includes a planned 50% reduction in its tech team at a time when the agency’s long-glitchy technology is having more issues than usual, CNN reported.

To access their accounts online, many people are now being required to verify their identity using selfies or by traveling to a field office. Phone verification is not longer allowed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

That can present a challenge to seniors with mobility issues and those who might struggle with the required technological knowledge.

If you plan to visit a Social Security office in person, make sure you make an appointment over the phone first: Walk-ins are not allowed, according to the agency’s website.

One San Francisco Chronicle reader said he’s “given up” trying to access his account online after unsuccessful attempts trying to verify his identity using photos, videos, his driver’s license and other personal information.

The agency’s website was also completely down for several hours this week, CNN reported.

Others have faced astronomical wait times on the phone.

“My first phone call that I made to Social Security, I was on hold for 3 hours and 15 minutes before I spoke to somebody,” Aaron Woods, who’s been trying for months to help his mother sort out her Social Security and Medicare benefits, told NPR.

Another Chronicle reader was quoted a wait time of 100 hours on the phone.

AARP has pushed back against the identity verification change.

“The Social Security Administration’s move to force people to visit offices in-person for services that they have sought by phone will result in more headaches and longer wait times to resolve routine customer service needs,” Nancy LeaMond, AARP’s executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer said in a statement.

The Chronicle offered the following tips: Those who have frozen their credit may need to temporarily unfreeze their Experian accounts in order to compete the Social Security identity verification process.

Some people have had issues using certain web browsers that send them on endless redirect loops. Microsoft Edge or an incognito window on Google Chrome may alleviate the issue.

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“Everyone deserves the opportunity to live at home, in their communities, and with their loved ones,” said Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This funding will bring dignity and peace of mind to even more seniors and people with disabilities across the country. We will continue expanding these programs to ensure all Americans have equitable access to the high-quality health care they deserve—no matter where they live.” 

“Our health care system works best when it meets us where we are and helps us get to where we want to be,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “With this new funding opportunity, we’re expanding a program with a proven track record of helping seniors and people with disabilities transition safely from institutional care to their own homes and communities. Letting ‘money follow the person’ is key to those successes, and to the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to affordable, accessible, person-centered care.” 

HCBS is a critical component of the Medicaid program and the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to help older adults and individuals with disabilities live safely and independently in their homes and communities. The MFP program has been a critical tool, now with the potential to do more in a broader array of states and territories thanks to this latest NOFO. 

To help additional states and territories implement MFP, these awards will support the early planning phase to get an MFP program off the ground. This includes:

• Establishing partnerships with community stakeholders, including those representing diverse and underserved populations, Tribal entities and governments, key state and local agencies (such as state and local public housing authorities), and community-based organizations;
• Conducting system assessments to better understand how HCBS support local residents;
• Developing programs for the types of community transitions MFP supports;
• Establishing or enhancing Medicaid HCBS quality improvement programs;
• Recruiting HCBS providers as well as expert providers for transition coordination and technical assistance; and
• Conducting a range of planning activities deemed necessary by the award recipients and approved by CMS.

State Medicaid agencies not currently participating in the MFP demonstration may apply through the NOFO no later than May 31, 2022. To access the NOFO, visit Grants.gov or here https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=334196

For states already participating in MFP, CMS also announced that the agency is increasing the reimbursement rate for MFP “supplemental services.” These services will now be 100% federally funded with no state share. Further, CMS is expanding the definition of supplemental services to include additional services that can support an individual’s transition from an institution to the community, including short-term housing and food assistance. These changes will help further address critical barriers to community living for eligible individuals, as well as increase community transition rates and the effectiveness of the MFP demonstration overall. For more information on current and previous grantees, visit Medicaid.gov. CMS will provide additional information on these changes to MFP grantees.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer and its partner BioNTech asked U.S. regulators Tuesday to authorize an additional booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine for seniors, saying data from Israel suggests older adults would benefit.

Currently the U.S. urges two primary shots followed months later by a booster dose for everyone age 12 and older. The new application seeks to add a fourth shot only for the over-65 population that has been hit hardest by the pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control would have to approve the request. If so, a key question would be how soon seniors would be advised to roll up their sleeves.

While authorities say the vaccinations continue to offer strong protection against severe illness, they haven’t held up as well against milder infections especially those due to the omicron mutant. With COVID-19 cases finally plummeting after the intense omicron surge, public health experts are starting to look ahead to what next steps might be needed — if a new variant crops up or, barring that, whether to try shoring up coronavirus protection in the fall at the same time people get flu vaccinations.

Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla signaled the company’s plans.

“The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths. It’s not that good against infections,” he said. “But we are just submitting those data to the FDA and then we will see what the experts also will say outside Pfizer.”

The U.S. booster campaign was based on evidence that the shots’ effectiveness, particularly against milder infections, was waning about six months after the last dose. Calls for a third shot grew once it became clear the vaccines weren’t as strong against the omicron mutant as they were against earlier versions of the virus.

Many scientists say the ultimate goal of vaccination is to prevent severe illness, not mild infections, and early CDC data show the shots still are doing a good job at that. During the omicron wave, effectiveness against hospitalization was 91% in people who had gotten their booster two months earlier, and 78% by the fourth month after that booster.

Pfizer based its new application on data from Israel, which already was offering a second booster to people age 60 and older and health care workers.

While some early data left unclear just how much benefit another shot offered — or for how long — Pfizer said Tuesday that an analysis of health records of more than 1.1 million Israeli seniors showed confirmed infections were two times lower and rates of severe illness were four times lower among those who got two boosters instead of just one.

Pfizer also cited an ongoing study of healthcare workers that tracked a jump in virus-fighting antibodies after getting the additional booster.

In the U.S. so far, a fourth dose is recommended only for people with severely weakened immune systems, who need three doses to begin with for the best chance at any protection.

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Hernan Quintas | Contributed

This week, Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36) called on the Department of Health and Human Services to guarantee at-home COVID-19 test kits to Medicare beneficiaries at no cost. Ruiz joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers in urging Secretary Xavier Becerra to include Medicare coverage for the tests following a directive from the Biden Administration that requires insurance companies and group health plans to cover over-the-counter COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

“In order to protect people with Medicare from the ongoing COVID-19 variants, we urge the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries have sustained access to at-home COVID-19 testing at no cost through the Medicare program,” Dr. Ruiz and the lawmakers wrote. “We encourage the Department to consider options such as additional clinics in rural, suburban, and other underserved areas with less accessible existing testing options, a telephone hotline to order free at-home tests to complement the website the administration created, and support for locally led efforts to provide at-home testing to Medicare beneficiaries at no cost.”

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By Trudy Lieberman

Last year Ellin and her husband, both new to Medicare, signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan from Essence Healthcare, a managed care firm based in a St. Louis suburb. She contacted me wanting to share her experiences in choosing a Medicare Advantage plan to cover what the Medicare program does not pay, and agreed to track how the plan paid for services throughout the year — especially the heavily advertised extra benefits such as vision and dental touted in TV ads during this season’s open enrollment period.

Her observations confirmed what I had learned over decades of covering health insurance for seniors. “Many agents do not know their own product very well,” she said. “They do not share the downsides of what they are selling because they do not know.” She found that the websites of the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), set up in each state by the federal government to help seniors choose Medicare plans, did not offer the necessary caveats for choosing Medigap and  Advantage plans, “which a discerning consumer would like to know.” As for the foreign travel benefit on the MA plans, it “is pretty vague in terms of what it would actually cover if you are injured in the jungle in the back country of Surinam,” she said. She also questioned the usefulness of a $95 quarterly allowance to buy health-related and personal items from the company’s catalogue. “The offerings are pretty limited,” she said, adding that there are only so many bandages and vitamins you need to buy. Some of her friends had signed up for specific plans because of those coupon offerings, she told me. “Some of these folks are fairly sophisticated otherwise, but freebies are compelling and cause people to overlook the big picture.”

Ellin and her husband did look at the big picture, and quickly learned how limited the dental benefits really are with some Medicare Advantage plans. The dental PPO her plan used gave “inaccurate information when I called them, and their network was pretty skimpy — fine for regular check-ups, but for anything beyond that, there are very limited choices in the network and there is a $1,200 annual spending maximum,” she explained.  That would have covered only half the cost of the oral surgery with implants her husband needed. Luckily, he was able to convert his former employer’s dental plan into an individual dental policy before the employer plan ended last December, which eventually covered the bill. Last February, Ellin told me she would not choose the Essence dental option again; instead she’d opt for the company’s basic Advantage plan, without any dental coverage.

The couple’s experience offers red flags for the thousands of seniors likely to sign up for such Medicare Advantage plans this year, lured by the promise of extra goodies not offered by traditional Medicare and Medigap plans. Next year, 5,400 Medicare Advantage plans will be offered to seniors, which is 10% more than this year, said Adam Barnhart, a principal and consulting  actuary at Milliman. “It’s an exciting time for Medicare Advantage,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest in it.”

It’s not hard to see why. Much of that interest is the result of the federal government’s strategy to overpay the plans — at least by 4% and possibly more — than it costs to care for the same person in traditional Medicare, according to Dr. Robert Berenson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. A few years ago, Advantage plans were paid 18% more by the federal government than it cost for the same person in the traditional program. That largess has allowed them to attract seniors with extra benefits that have enticed people like Ellin to the plans.

Those extra payments, plus a Trump administration rule allowing plans to offer goodies like free meals, free aspirins, dental and hearing benefits, and rides to doctors’ offices, have created a decided market advantage for these privately administered plans over traditional Medicare, with 42% of all beneficiaries like Ellin now in Medicare Advantage plans. That uneven playing field is at the crux of the current debate in Congress whether to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to the traditional Medicare benefit. Adding such benefits to traditional Medicare would help level the playing field, since beneficiaries would be able to have the same important benefits as people in Advantage plans. And keeping people in the traditional program will help keep it more robust and sustainable over the long run. In the Build Back Better bill just sent to the Senate, only the hearing provisions remain.

Because advertising for Medicare Advantage plans is so ubiquitous compared to the traditional Medicare program, I wanted to know if seniors could actually make a good, informed choice. I did some shopping in New York City to find out. In the last few weeks I have received 25 mailers from insurers and groups like the Medicare Advocates in South Jordan, Utah, offering a “no cost review of coverage,” while MedicareInsurance.com urged me to return a card with my phone number to its National Processing Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. Agents prospecting for names, I figured. The shopping task was overwhelming even for someone like me who knows the program.

To create a sample of Advantage plans, I used a list of policies obtained through the Montefiore Hospital website, which nudged its patients to investigate MA plans offered through eHealth, a private online health insurance marketplace. Montefiore isn’t alone in pitching MA products. Mount Sinai Health System in New York City and the large Sutter Health system in California are doing the same, presumably to attract new patients to their hospitals and other services.

For my shopping trip I investigated 20 plans listed for my ZIP code. Five insurers were selling multiple plans. Aetna offered five; Emblem Health offered six; Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield three; Humana four; and Health First two — way too many for anyone to comprehend or reasonably compare.  

Some plans sported fanciful names that only furthered confusion. How does a shopper know if Emblem Health’s VIP Gold is good, better, or worse than Emblem’s VIP Passport NYC? Or what are the differences among Empire’s MediBlue Select, MediBlue Extra Select, and MediBlue Health Plus? Do the names indicate the real value of these HMO plans, or are they marketing gimmicks to make a plan appear to deliver more value than it actually does? 

I looked at the member ratings for the plans listed in the Medicare Handbook sent to all beneficiaries by the federal government each year. It wasn’t clear what that rating meant and did it differ from the Medicare star ratings (a topic for a future post). I checked with some of my sources and learned that member experience with the plan was one factor that goes into the star ratings and comprises such dimensions as ease of getting care, seeing specialists and getting appointments and care quickly. The handbook for my county noted that the member ratings for the Emblem Health Medicare HMO, which includes Emblem’s VIP Reserve and VIP Passport NYC plans, was 75%. That raises some questions about how the plan was performing. Most of the plans for my county didn’t have stellar ratings. That should prompt shoppers to ask a lot of questions before signing up.

That uneven playing field is at the crux of the current debate in Congress whether to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to the traditional Medicare benefit. Adding such benefits to traditional Medicare would help level the playing field. In the Build Back Better bill just sent to the Senate, only the hearing provisions remain.

Delving further, I called Emblem Health and a helpful representative tried to explain the differences among plans. I asked about the consumer’s cost for a single crown restoration. The marketing literature suggested the cost would be $125 for a single crown restoration every five years. They typically cost between $1,000 and $3,000 in New York, so this did sound like a bargain. If I wanted more information, the agent suggested consulting the company’s “Evidence of Coverage” document, 252 pages that most buyers are unlikely to read, but it does lay out exactly what you’re getting with the plan. It would take a lot patience and effort to sort through what each plan you’re considering would cover.

A recent survey of Medicare dental benefits by the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that while preventive services offered by Advantage plans are often covered without cost sharing except for annual dollar limits, 50% coinsurance — the share of covered costs the enrollee pays — and caps on the total benefit amount are the norm for more extensive dental services. For instance, you pay half the bill, which is what Ellin and her husband would have paid for his implant work. Barnhart, the Milliman actuary told me, “Because there is no standardization, plans have flexibility to cover any aspect of dental. You can have some plans with very different levels of coverage, even though they say they cover dental.” That makes a shopper’s task nearly impossible.

My little shopping trip underscores the need to standardize the Medicare Advantage market, much the way the Medigap market was standardized in 1991, after that marketplace had run-amok with zillions of plans offering varying benefits. Writing for Consumer Reports at the time, I noted that many companies had several offerings with only slight differences among them, suggesting that standardization would eliminate the confusion buyers faced. It wasn’t long after that advocacy groups and others banned together to pressure Congress into standardizing the policies. Congress has made changes to the Medigap line-up over the years. The end result has been to make some of them less attractive to consumers with the aim of encouraging more of those now in traditional Medicare with a Medigap policy to move to an MA plan.

That was the high water mark of the consumer movement, a few years before former House speaker Newt Gingrich began his effort to let Medicare “wither on the vine.”  There hasn’t been much talk of standardization of Advantage plans, says a Congressional legislative insider who spoke on background. “The consensus has been not to require plans to offer the same benefits,” she told me. Instead, any talk about standardization now revolves around “communicating with beneficiaries and policy proposals around education and marketing materials.” In other words, it seems public policy will continue to promote further the expansion of Advantage plans.

David Lipschutz, associate director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, says that Medicare Advantage plans today are competing over the “bells and whistles when we should be focusing more on substance like cost-sharing, denial rates and  network adequacy.” For instance, in most of the plans in my sample, the maximum out-of-pocket amount was $7,550. A few companies had a smaller maximum, $6,700, and some had an $11,300 out-of-pocket maximum, which is relevant in some plans that are PPOs. Those are hardly trivial amounts for much of the population these plans target. “Predictions are that 60% of the Medicare population will be in MA plans by 2025, yet Congress is doing nothing to address this imbalance,” Lipschutz said. “They are endorsing the privatization of Medicare.” Proposals in Congress to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to traditional Medicare would have begun to address this imbalance.  Heavy lobbying against a dental benefit by the nation’s dentists and concerns about cost appears to have killed the prospects for dental and vision benefits. “Cost is a strong limiting factor for dental and vision,” said my Congressional source. “Different members have different funding priorities.”

The Medicare Advantage market is complex and confusing, while promising generous benefits, many of which turn out to be of limited use as Ellin and her husband learned. With seniors confronting such a complex, and sometimes deceptive market, you can see why it’s just easier to let pitchmen like Joe Namath and Danny Glover guide their decisions.

Ellin, my Missouri correspondent, reported she and her husband had decided not to rely on a Medicare Advantage plan for vision or dental benefits after talking to several medical providers in their area about the networks for dental and vision care. Instead, they bought a separate dental plan for both of them from a different carrier and planned to pay out-of-pocket if necessary. They will also pay for vision care out-of-pocket. “The dental and vision plans are tokens,” she concluded. “They are not comprehensive.”

Veteran health care journalist Trudy Lieberman is a contributing editor at the Center for Health Journalism Digital and a regular contributor to the Remaking Health Care column.

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The Senior Citizens League, one of the nation’s largest nonpartisan seniors groups, surveyed 1,125 participants from mid-January through April 20, 2021. According to their data, more than 62% of retirees think that Social Security cost-of-living adjustments need a guaranteed minimum of 3%. “When the prices on the goods and services that retirees depend on go through the roof, their Social Security benefits don’t buy as much, and that causes enormous financial stress for all retirees,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League, in a press release.

The League stated that they are working with Congress to increase benefits for retirees to the 3% guaranteed minimum and to use the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, or CPI-E. The latest cost-of-living adjustment decision was based on an increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, from the third quarter of 2019 through the third quarter of 2020; however, inflation has risen since last year by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2021.

The CPI-W was more than 3% higher as of the end of March than it was the previous year, according to CNBC. The largest COLA increase was in 2008 by 5.8%. Since 2010, the average increase has been 1.4%, according to data from the Social Security Administration. An increase to monthly Social Security benefits will be determined by CPI data through September.

GOBankingRates | Contributed

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This is no ordinary flu season; it’s a flu season amid a pandemic. With two dangerous viruses going around at once, it’s time for us to protect our communities by getting the vaccine we already have: the flu vaccine. A flu shot won’t protect you against COVID-19, but it has many other important benefits.

Flu vaccines have been shown to reduce the risk of flu illness, hospitalization, and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there’s no evidence that a flu vaccination increases your risk of getting sick from a coronavirus, like the one that causes COVID-19.

Those at high risk for flu complications include young children, pregnant women, people 65 years and older, and people with certain chronic health conditions. Anyone who is six months old or older should get a yearly flu vaccine. The CDC recommends getting vaccinated in September or October, but a flu shot anytime during the flu season can help protect you.

Flu season in North America rarely begins before early October and usually lasts from December to March. In the past two years, the peak activity has occurred around mid-to-late February.

Your body needs two weeks after a shot to develop a protective response to the influenza virus, so your best bet is to get vaccinated before the flu rate begins to climb. Workplaces and other settings that usually provide flu shots may not do so this season because of the challenges of maintaining social distancing.

For more information on where you can get a flu vaccine, visit www.vaccinefinder.org. When going to get a flu shot, please practice everyday preventive actions and follow the CDC’s recommendations for running essential errands. Ask your doctor, pharmacist, or health department if they are following CDC’s vaccination pandemic guidance.

Any vaccination location following CDC’s guidance should be a safe place for you to get a flu vaccine. Medicare Part B covers one flu shot per flu season per beneficiary. You pay nothing for a flu shot if your doctor or other qualified healthcare provider accepts Medicare payment for giving the shot. If you have a child over six months old who qualifies for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), you may also qualify for a flu vaccination at no cost to you.

What’s the difference between flu and COVID-19? Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they’re caused by different viruses. COVID-19 is caused by infection with a new coronavirus (called SARS-CoV-2) and flu is caused by infection with influenza viruses.

Because some symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are similar, it may be hard to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone, and testing may be needed to help confirm a diagnosis. It is possible to have flu and COVID-19 at the same time. Health experts are still studying how common this can be.

While it’s not possible to say with certainty what will happen in the fall and winter, CDC believes it’s likely that flu viruses and the virus that causes COVID-19 will both be spreading.

CDC has developed a test that will check for A and B type seasonal flu viruses and SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This test will be used by U.S. public health laboratories. Testing for these viruses at the same time will give public health officials important information about how flu and COVID-19 are spreading and what preventive steps should be taken.

So please protect yourself, your family, and your community by getting a flu shot this fall.

-Seema Verma – Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

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Grandfathers for Golf is a non-profit, charitable 501(c)(3) program. They are staffed mostly by senior citizens, all of which are volunteers. The organization currently has 40-50 volunteers, all dedicated to teaching Golf to young children that come from both low-income families and financially solvent families, all at no cost. They are partnered with Golden Era Productions to use the Golden Era Golf Course in San Jacinto, as well as with Valley-Wide Recreation to use the Echo Hills Golf Course, in Hemet.

Everyone that is a part of Grandfathers for Golf is there for the betterment of the children’s lives, as well as to be a part of something bigger than the individual. President of the organization, Tony Viola, describes, ” I’ve noticed a phenomenon over the years that I have been here, and that is the fact that all of these volunteers out here have bonded together and become a family. They became their support system, helping each other throughout senior citizenship”.

He continued, adding, “The kids and volunteers all come from different backgrounds and cultures, and they’ve meshed very well. They learn from each other’s differences and use them to have a great experience”.

Another volunteer, Bob Wadlow, has volunteered with Grandfathers for Golf for three and a half years. He tells of his experience, “Helping the kids every day gives us a chance to give back. I’ve been volunteering my whole life, helping children, and not only is it a good experience for us but at the same time, we are helping these children learn the game of golf, the proper etiquette of the sport, the behaviors, and mannerisms. It gives life a purpose”.

The Grandfathers offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes. They have programs every season of the year. For the fall, winter and spring programs, their charter partners with the San Jacinto Unified School District to have busses at every middle school in the valley to provide the kids with transportation to every class.

Once enrolled, GFG provides every child with a golfing hat, shirt, and their own set of clubs, free of charge. Parents are always welcomed to come to watch and can be down on the course, taking every step of the session alongside their children.

A new volunteer, Ron Davis, found a few hours of his time that he could dedicate to such a positive and impactful cause. Davis, who lives in Huntington Beach, called the organization, “inspiring” and “welcoming.”

Many of the volunteers, like Davis, found out about the organization through their Men’s and Women’s Club, where adults gather and hang out, around the game of Golf. On Thursday mornings, they meet at the Golden Era Golf Course, at 7:30 a.m. For the mere price of $25, you will receive a continental breakfast, lunch, and 18 holes of Golf. $5 of the $25 is entered into a prize pool, while the rest of the proceeds go directly to Grandfathers for Golf. This is a great way to meet the volunteers and gather more information on what the Grandfathers are all about.

Another option, as Davis suggests, is, “…to come down and hang out. See everything that these guys have going on here. You see the difference it makes for these kids once you’re here helping them out”.

Viola praised his volunteers, but also the donors, stating that, “Golden Era Productions, San Jacinto Unified School District and Soboba are our main contributors, along with the many other individual donors here in the valley.”

He also spoke on the lasting effect that his organization has had on families. He described a young boy with autism, whose parents signed him up with Grandfathers. He was nonverbal, and they took him in and taught him Golf. He was able to socialize with the children, as well as with the Grandfathers. In the end, they helped him towards becoming verbal. Years later, Viola receives a call from the boy’s parents, saying that he is doing well and has a job. They credited the Grandfathers for Golf as the ones who changed that boy’s life, forever.

This one example is a perfect representation of what Viola, Wadlow, Davis, and the rest of the organization stands for. They wake up each morning, looking forward to walking onto the course, and sharing their knowledge and wisdom with the children of our community. Seeing the smiles on the faces of our youth is their biggest goal. As they put it, “Volunteers come in all types: men, women, older, younger, liberal, conservative. The core value that unites them all in a single purpose is that they want to make a difference in a child’s life”.

The Grandfathers for Golf are always looking for more volunteers, and are ready to welcome you to the golf course. They plan on pursuing future growth, changing their official name too, “Grandfathers for Golf, Inc.” If you are interested in volunteering or getting your children involved, please visit: www.grandfathersforgolf.org

The author of this story can be contacted at villalobos3fidel@gmail.com

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