The Colorado State Health Insurance Assistance Program willreceive more than $10,000 from the Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices for 'outstanding achievement.'
The program provides Medicare beneficiaries with counseling andbenefits information, including help answering questions related toMedicare, Medicare Supplemental Insurance, Medicare Advantage,prescription coverage and low-income assistance.
The program offices are required to use the money to enhance andexpand counseling and information assistance functions, and toincrease awareness among Medicare beneficiaries about the helpavailable to people with limited incomes and resources to pay forprescription drug costs.
Established by CMS during 2006, State Health Insurance AssistanceProgram Performance Awards are determined using criteria thatinclude the number of beneficiaries that a program serves in one-on-one counseling sessions and in its public education and outreachefforts, and the number of counselors a program has recruited andtrained to provide community-based assistance to Medicarebeneficiaries.
New specialist at Penrose
The only gynecologic oncologist in southern Colorado startedseeing patients earlier this month at Penrose-St. Francis HealthServices.
Dr. Dirk Pikaart will be offering comprehensive gynecologiconcology care for women who have cancer of the reproductive organs,including uterine, ovarian, cervix, vulvas and vaginal cancer, aswell as women requiring complicated gynecologic surgery.
Patients will no longer have to travel to Denver to receivetreatment.
Pikaart has experience in advanced chemotherapeutics and radicalgynecologic surgery. He performed an internship at MetropolitanHospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., an obstetrician/gynecologistresidency at Mercy General Health Partners in Muskegon, Mich., and afellowship in gynecologic oncology at Florida Hospital CancerInstitute in Orlando, Fla.
Pikaart's office is in the Penrose Cancer Center. He will beoperating at both Penrose Hospital and the new St. Francis MedicalCenter.
Flu shot clinics
Flu vaccinations are available in record quantities, with healthcare experts recommending that everyone get a vaccination early.
'It's difficult to know how severe this season's flu will beahead of time,' said Linda Therrien, wellness division manager forthe Visiting Nurses Association. 'That's why it's best to protectyourself with a vaccine.'
Last year, 1,004 people in El Paso County were hospitalizedbecause of the flu, the highest number in four years. According tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 20 percent ofthe population gets the flu every year; more than 200,000 people arehospitalized and about 36,000 people die.
Memorial Health System HealthLink will conduct flu shot clinicsthroughout Colorado Springs during October and November. The cost is$26 per person. Memorial Medical Network and Kaiser Permanentemembers pay $18. Vaccinations are available for children 6 monthsand older.
No appointments are necessary.
Memorial HealthLink
5360 N. Academy Blvd., Suite 220
Walk-in service is available beginning
Oct. 13 through mid-November
Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2 to 4:30 p.m.
Memorial Hospital North
4050 Briargate Parkway
Oct. 22, 3 to 7 p.m.
Memorial HealthLink
5360 N. Academy Blvd., Suite 220
Oct. 25, 9 a.m. to noon
Memorial Urgent Care --
Springs Medical Center
2502 E. Pikes Peak Ave.
Nov. 6, 7:30 to 9 a.m.
The VNA also will host flu shot clinics
from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 a.m. to 1p.m. Saturdays at 573 N. Union Blvd.,
Suite 101.
No Tricare fee hikes in 2009
Military retirees and active duty service members won anotherhuge legislative victory this week when Congress said 'no' toincreases in Tricare fees and co-payments, and rejectedestablishment of new fees for Tricare for Life and Tricare Standardbeneficiaries during fiscal year 2009.
The increases and new fees -- including increased prescriptiondrug co-payments for active duty dependents who purchase medicationsat retail pharmacies, and doubling or even tripling of some Tricareout-of-pocket costs for retirees -- were being pushed for by thePentagon.
The fight about Tricare fee increases will resume next year, asthe Defense Department continues to use the report of its task forceon health care as the blueprint for shifting more of the costs ofthe military health care system to its beneficiaries, particularlyretirees.
