Association Benefits Corporation

Long-term health care is generally not covered by medical insurance, by Medicare supplement plans or group insurance.  


For seniors on Medicare, the long-term care benefits are quite limited -- especially compared to the potential cost of a debilitating disease like Alzheimer's or just the greater need for months or years of care that occurs as we age.

That is why a growing number of Americans have purchased long-term care insurance that pays for home care, for assisted living or for care in a nursing home.  Some 8.25 million Americans have this protection obtained either on an individual basis or through a plan offered by their employer, a group or association they belong to.

For more information about Long Term Care coverage, you may contact Association Benefits Corp. and request information from their Long Term specialties.

It's important to safeguard your personal information.  Data breaches increased 47% last year and affected 35.7 million Americans.  Here are some things you can do to protect your information from criminals:

1. Don't carry sensitive personal Information such as your Social Security Card with you.  Identity theft commonly results from information found in lost or stolen wallets, purses, mail or paper records.

2. Don't give out your Social Security number unless absolutely necessary - and never on unsolicited phone calls or emails.

3. Shred account statements and any financial documents before you throw them away.

4. Provide financial information only when you are on a secure website.  A secure Web address will begin with the letters "https" (instead of the usual "http") and will often display a small padlock icon.

5. Maintain up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spam and persona firewall software.  For reviews of the latest security software, see www.cnet.com.

Did you know?  $48 billion was the total cost of identity theft in 2008.  43% resulted from lost of stolen wallets, checkbooks and credit cards.  11% were committed online.

To further protect yourself and your family, check out our Identity Theft Program.

• Googel.com/health "allows individuals and families to create their own free online medical records." and to safely share them with physicians.  As long as you feel comfortable doling out personal details, storing the information online can be "pretty appealing".

• Healthvault.com,  Microsoft's health records site, similarly stores medical information.  It also offers "programs that can link to home devices such as a blood-glucose meter or a heart-rate monitor."

• Everydayhealth.com  "links 24 separate health sites catering to various interests."  These include the pregnancy site Whattoexpect.com and CarePages.com, which "allows hospitalized patients and families to set up their own Web sites to keep relatives and friends posted on the patient's progress".

• Healthcentral.com  includes information on everything from diabetes to attention deficit hyperactivty disorder, along with "a cool symptom checker."

Source:  The Wall Street Journal

Ear infections, sore throats and stuffy noses are just part of being a kid.  But these days, doctors are noticing that a growing number of such infections are taking a more dangerous form.  Between 2001 and 2006, says a new report, increasing percentages of pediatric ear, nose and throat infections are turning out to be MRSA, the drug-resistant staph germ that is more difficult to fight with the usual antibiotics. 

In 2001, just 12% of kids' head and neck infections were MRSA.  In 2006, 28% were caused by the life-threatening superbug.  "In most parts of the United States, there's been an alarming rise," Dr. Steven Sobol tells the Chicago Sun-Times.  If caught early, most MRSA infections do respond to vancomycin, a newer antibiotic, but some strains of MRSA are becomming resistant to vancomycin as well. 

If a child has a throat or ear infection that doesn't get better in a few days, doctors say, parents should seek immediate medical attention.

from The Week, February 6, 2009