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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
NEWS Wallowa.com Wednesday, October 30, 2019 A11 Hillock Insurance offers help in Medicare plan enrollments Bill Bradshaw Wallowa County Chieftain Social Security. Medi- care. Part A. Part B and the rest of the senior health care alphabet soup. Choosing the right coverage can be daunting. That’s what Kathleen Bennett is here to help with. The insurance agent held an open house Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Hillock Insurance at 616 W. North St. in Enter- prise to help people under- stand and be able to enroll in Medicare and related programs. “I know this can be very complicated and confus- ing, so come see me if you are thinking of enrolling in a Medicare plan,” she said. “There’s no cost to answer questions.” Bennett said she also can help people already enrolled in Medicare and its supplements change plans or sign up for something new. There are three main things that people near- ing eligibility for Medicare should know, Bennett said. The fi rst is that that they have a seven-month window surrounding their 65th birth- day—three months before their birth month, their birth month, and three months after their birth month — in which to enroll in Medi- care Parts A and B. So if you were born on, say, Septem- ber 10, you would have all of September, all of the three months before your birth- day (June, July, and August) Bill Bradshaw Kathleen Bennett, Medicare agent at Hillock Insurance in Enterprise, looks over some information she uses to advise Medicare- eligible customers Thursday, Oct. 24, at her offi ce on West North Street. plus all of the three months after your birthday (October, November, and December) to enroll in Medicare’s basic programs, A and B. Part A covers 80 percent of hospital- ization. B covers 80 percent of physician, outpatient care, and other, related expenses. Second, it’s important to understand the difference between Medicare A and B and the additional plans of Medicare Advantage (Part C), Medicare supplement plans, and Part D, which covers prescription drugs. And third, it’s important to choose the best plan for your individual situation. The deadline for enroll- ment in Parts C, Supple- mentary plans, and part D is December 7. Medicare Advantage, aka Medicare C, is a program administered by Moda—a health-care insurance com- pany that started out as the Oregon Dental Ser- vice (ODS) in 1955. Today they are eastern Oregon’s only provider of Medi- care Advantage. Medicare Advantage is relatively new. It is an “all in one” alterna- tive to Original Medicare. If you join a Medicare Advan- tage Plan, you still have Medicare. These “bundled” plans include Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Medicare Part B (Medi- cal Insurance), and usually Medicare prescription drug (Part D). If Medicare Advantage through Moda doesn’t work for you, there are supple- ment Plans F, G, K and N, also known as “Medigap insurance” These plans are defi ned by Medicare. They are offered by many private health insurance providers, including Blue Cross, Farm- ers, United Health Care and others. Because Medicare defi nes the coverage, any “Plan G” policy, for exam- ple, provides the same cov- erage as any other “Plan G policy” regardless of the company you purchase the plan from. To enroll in Medi- gap coverage, you must be enrolled in Medicare parts A and B. But, importantly, these supplemental plans do not provide coverage for prescription drugs. If you choose Medigap coverage (above), you may also wish to have prescrip- tion drug coverage. This is provided by Medicare Plan D, which has several stan- dard options defi ned by Medicare. Like the Medi- gap coverage, it is pur- chased from private insur- ance companies. There are many differ- ent options for medical insurance to supplement the basic Medicare parts A and B. “It’s helpful to have someone guide you through those choices. It’s not a one- size fi ts-all,” Bennett said. “I’m here to help Wallowa County residents make the best choices for their indi- vidual situations.” To learn more, visit medi- care.gov, socialsecurity.gov or contact Kathleen Bennett at 616 W. North St. in Enter- prise, 541-426-4208 or kath- leen@hillockins.com. BLUE LIGHT IS BAD FOR YOU Research shows wavelengths produced by LEDs damage brains cells Steve Lundeberg Oregon State University CORVALLIS, Ore. – Prolonged exposure to blue light, such as that which emanates from your phone, computer and household fi xtures, could be affecting your longevity, even if it’s not shining in your eyes. New research at Oregon State University suggests that the blue wavelengths produced by light-emitting diodes damage cells in the brain as well as retinas. The study, published today in Aging and Mecha- nisms of Disease, involved a widely used organism, Dro- sophila melanogaster, the common fruit fl y, an import- ant model organism because of the cellular and develop- mental mechanisms it shares with other animals and humans. Jaga Giebultowicz, a researcher in the OSU Col- lege of Science who stud- ies biological clocks, led a research collaboration that examined how fl ies responded to daily 12-hour exposures to blue LED light – similar to the prevalent blue wavelength in devices like phones and tablets – and found that the light acceler- ated aging. Flies subjected to daily cycles of 12 hours in light and 12 hours in darkness had shorter lives compared OregonState University Exposure to blue light can damage brain cells as well as your eyes. to fl ies kept in total darkness or those kept in light with the blue wavelengths fi ltered out. The fl ies exposed to blue light showed damage to their retinal cells and brain neurons and had impaired locomotion – the fl ies’ abil- ity to climb the walls of their enclosures, a common behavior, was diminished. Some of the fl ies in the experiment were mutants that do not develop eyes, and even those eyeless fl ies displayed brain damage and locomotion impairments, suggesting fl ies didn’t have to see the light to be harmed by it. “The fact that the light was accelerating aging in the fl ies was very surprising to us at fi rst,” said Giebul- towicz, a professor of inte- grative biology. “We’d mea- sured expression of some genes in old fl ies, and found that stress-response, protec- tive genes were expressed if fl ies were kept in light. We hypothesized that light was regulating those genes. Then we started asking, what is it in the light that is harmful to them, and we looked at the spectrum of light. It was very clear cut that although light without blue slightly short- ened their lifespan, just blue light alone shortened their lifespan very dramatically.” Natural light, Giebulto- wicz notes, is crucial for the body’s circadian rhythm – the 24-hour cycle of phys- iological processes such as brain wave activity, hor- mone production and cell regeneration that are import- ant factors in feeding and sleeping patterns. “But there is evidence suggesting that increased exposure to artifi cial light is a risk factor for sleep and cir- cadian disorders,” she said. “And with the prevalent use of LED lighting and device displays, humans are sub- jected to increasing amounts of light in the blue spectrum since commonly used LEDs emit a high fraction of blue light. But this technology, LED lighting, even in most developed countries, has not been used long enough to know its effects across the human lifespan.” Giebultowicz says that the fl ies, if given a choice, avoid blue light. “We’re going to test if the same signaling that causes them to escape blue light is involved in longevity,” she said. Eileen Chow, faculty research assistant in Giebul- towicz’s lab and co-fi rst author of the study, notes that advances in technology and medicine could work together to address the dam- aging effects of light if this research eventually proves applicable to humans. “Human lifespan has increased dramatically over the past century as we’ve found ways to treat diseases, and at the same time we have been spending more and more time with artifi cial light,” she said. “As science looks for ways to help peo- ple be healthier as they live longer, designing a health- ier spectrum of light might be a possibility, not just in terms of sleeping better but in terms of overall health.” In the meantime, there are a few things people can do to help themselves that don’t involve sitting for hours in darkness, the researchers say. Eyeglasses with amber PET OF K THE WEE lenses will fi lter out the blue light and protect your ret- inas. And phones, laptops and other devices can be set to block blue emissions. “In the future, there may be phones that auto-adjust their display based on the length of usage the phone perceives,” said lead author Trevor Nash, a 2019 OSU Honors College graduate who was a fi rst-year under- graduate when the research began. “That kind of phone might be diffi cult to make, but it would probably have a big impact on health.” Brought to you by, Susan Gilstrap - CPA 541.426.4070 Meet Cash Cash is a neutered tuxedo kitty with unique markings! Born June 2019, Cash is full of energy, playful, loving and fun! He’s handsome and he knows it! He will do great in a home with kids to play with! Cash is litter box trained, up-to-date on shots and de-worming. Available for Adoption If interested call Josie at 541-398-1082 $45 adoption fee http://www.wallowacountyhumanesociety.org/ Meeting all your agricultural, heavy equipment & vehicle needs! 119 E. 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