(NAPSI) — Open enrollment is the time of year, usually between September and December, when millions of Americans have the opportunity to select or switch their health insurance plan for the following year.
Unfortunately, just 14 percent of Americans understand basic health insurance concepts such as deductible, co-pay, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Health Economics.
“Choosing health care coverage for yourself and your family is one of the most important decisions you will make this year,” said Tom Paul, chief consumer officer for UnitedHealthcare. “Fortunately, there are a number of useful resources people can use as they review and understand their options for selecting the plan that best meets their personal health and budget needs.”
Beginning this fall, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that an additional 7 million people may participate in open enrollment as a result of the government’s newly created state health insurance exchanges, otherwise known as “marketplaces.” The exchanges are a component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and are designed to give people, especially lower-income individuals and families that may qualify for federal subsidy assistance, another resource to purchase health insurance.
In general, most people who get health insurance at work will see little or no change in the open-enrollment process, and people on Medicare, Medicaid and other government insurance programs are also not likely affected. The vast majority of Americans—about 157 million with employer-provided coverage, and more than 51 million Medicare beneficiaries—will continue to select a health insurance plan in the same way they have done in the past.
Regardless of how you access health insurance, it’s important to pay attention to the following open enrollment dates and tips:
• Employer-Provided Coverage—Fall; specific dates depend on the employer
Most Americans receive employer-provided health benefits, so their open enrollment process will most likely stay the same. Large employers and some small employers typically schedule a two- to three-week period during the fall when their employees can select health benefits for the following year.
• Tip: Ask about wellness programs. Some health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare, offer incentive-based wellness programs that provide financial rewards for completing health assessments, lowering your cholesterol, losing weight or even signing up for a health coaching program.
• Medicare Open Enrollment Period—Oct. 15 through Dec. 7
For most Medicare beneficiaries, the Open Enrollment Period is their only opportunity all year to make changes to their Medicare coverage.
• Tip: Think about what’s changed regarding your health and your options. A lot can change in a year. Consider if your current plan is still meeting your health and budget needs. Medicare plans can change each year, too, so spend time reviewing the options available. Some Medicare Advantage plans offer additional benefits that can help enhance your health and well-being and save you money, such as vision coverage and hearing aids. You can compare your options using the plan finder tool at www.Medicare.gov.
• Health Insurance Exchanges—Oct. 1 through March 31
A public health insurance exchange may be a good option for people who are eligible to receive a government subsidy that lowers monthly premiums.
• Tip: Find out if you qualify for a subsidy. In general, subsidies are available to individuals who meet household income requirements and who are not eligible for certain government insurance programs (such as Medicaid) or do not have access to affordable coverage through their employer.
For helpful information and resources, visit UHC.com and MedicareMadeClear.com. To learn more about health insurance exchanges, visit www.healthcare.gov

HOOVER, Ala. — The American Red Cross responds to thousands of fires in peoples’ homes every year and most of those fires occur while someone is cooking. The focus of this year’s National Fire Prevention Week is “Prevent Kitchen Fires” and the Red Cross is offering tips for avoiding fires in the kitchen.
Last year, the Alabama Red Cross responded to nearly 2,500 fires across the state and provided assistance for more than 7,750 people. Red Cross emergency assistance can include food, clothing, shelter, emotional support, and referrals to other relief agencies.
“Here in Alabama, we see firsthand the destruction a cooking fire can cause,” said Chris Osborne, Communications Officer for the Alabama Red Cross. “These emergencies can be prevented and we urge everyone to follow these steps to help avoid a fire in their home.”
KEEP AN EYE ON WHAT YOU FRY – The cook should not wear loose clothing or dangling sleeves while cooking. They should also stay in the kitchen and never leave cooking food unattended. If they must leave the kitchen, for even a short period of time, they should turn off the stove.
Other ways to avoid cooking fires include the following:
·         Fires can start when the heat is too high. When frying food, if the cook sees smoke or the grease starts to boil, turn the burner off.
·         Keep children and pets at least three feet away from the stove.
·         Clean and clear the area around the stove before turning on the heat.
·         Turn pot handles to the back of the stove so no one bumps them or pulls them over.
·         Move things that can burn away from the stove – items such as dishtowels, bags, boxes, paper and curtains.
•       Keep a pan lid or a cookie sheet nearby. Use it to cover the pan if it
catches on fire. This will put out the fire.
THE PAN IS ON FIRE – If the pan catches fire, don’t move it. Slide a pan lid or cookie sheet on top of the pan to take the air away and put the fire out. Turn off the heat. Keep the lid on the pan until it cools. Never try to stop a grease or oil fire with water – it will only make the fire bigger.

OVEN, MICROWAVE FIRES – If something catches fire in the oven, keep the door closed. Call 9-1-1 so firefighters can make sure the fire didn’t spread to the walls. If a fire occurs in the microwave, keep the door closed and unplug the microwave if you can. Don’t use it until a repairman checks it.

STOP, DROP AND ROLL – If a fire occurs and someone’s clothes are on fire, they should stop where they are immediately, drop to the floor, cover their face with their hands and roll over and over to suffocate the flames. Keep doing it until the fire is out.

JUST GET OUT– Leave the home and call the fire department from outside. Make sure everyone in the home gets out – fast. Once outside, stay out. Never go back inside a burning building.

MAKE A PLAN – The Red Cross recommends that households develop a fire escape plan and practice it at least twice a year with everyone who lives in the home. People should know two ways to escape from every room and designate a place to meet outside the home in case of a fire

Other safety steps include:
•    Follow the escape plan in case of fire. Get out, stay out, and call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number.
•    Install smoke alarms on every level of the house and inside bedrooms.
•    Replace batteries in smoke alarms at least once a year. Test each alarm monthly by pushing the test button.
•    Download the Red Cross First Aid App to get access to life-saving information on what to do for common, everyday first aid emergencies including burns. The app is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play for Android.

The Alabama Department of Public Health program created to let people know the top 10 things they can do to help prevent the flu!

1.  Get Vaccinated

2.  Wash Your Hands

3.  Cover Your Coughs and Sneezes

4.  Stay Home With Fever

5.  Stockpile Supplies

6.  Clean and Disinfect

7.  Know Your Office Emergency Plan

8.  Learn Home Care

9.  Call Your Doctor If Symptoms Get Worse

10. Stay Informed

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – More than 500 volunteers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, the UAB School of Nursing, Cahaba Valley Health Care, and other local dentists, health agencies and companies cared for more than 350 people  as part of the first UAB Dentistry Cares Community Day.
The charitable event saw UAB’s volunteer team treat basic dental needs for low-income and underserved people in the Birmingham-area community at no cost. Treatments included cleanings, restorations and extractions.
“The bottom line is that this is a need for a large part of our population in this area, and we want to help make a positive impact and contribution to our community,” said Michael Reddy, DMD, D.M.Sc., dean of UAB’s School of Dentistry, one of the first schools of dentistry in the country to offer these kinds of services to underserved members of the community in a daylong, charitable event.
“Oral health care goes beyond a smile, and research shows that the infection and inflammation that can occur in the mouth affect our overall health,” Reddy said. “We’re privileged to do what we can today to help those in the community in need.”
On-site wellness activities, including blood pressure checks and oral cancer screenings, were made available to patients. School of Nursing students provided additional health care education to patients, reviewed medical histories and more. Each patient also received extensive entry and exit oral health care counseling.
“Our school has a saying that ‘to whom much is given much is required,’” said Conan Davis, DMD, chair of UAB Dentistry Cares and director of community collaborations. “We’ve been given skills, abilities and resources, and we want to give back to our community. We believe it is part of our duty.”
More than 250 people were expected for the daylong event, which began at 8 a.m. But more than 110 people had registered for care by 9 a.m., and the 250-person goal was surpassed by noon.
The School of Dentistry worked with Cahaba Valley Health Care, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing access to quality healthcare for the underserved, and One Roof, a networking and referral agency of service providers for homeless, to coordinate the event. Most of the patients came from homeless shelters in the Jefferson and Shelby County areas, but walk-ups also were accepted.
More than half of adults ages 20 to 64 and below the federal poverty level report their teeth are in either “fair” or “poor” condition, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Less than 50 percent of these adults see a dentist regularly. Additionally, Alabama Medicaid provides no dental coverage for adults, so low-income people have limited access to dental services.
“So, essentially, once you’re past the age of 19 in the state of Alabama, you don’t have any dental coverage,” Reddy said. “If you’re a little down on your luck, like some of the people I’ve met today, there’s nowhere to go. Anyone who has ever needed some preventive care or just had a solid toothache can tell you how important it is to have access to care. Unfortunately, there are many in our own community who have very limited access, and the access they do have is mainly charitable. We’re hoping this event will raise awareness of the need for better access to care.”
Other groups partnering with UAB included local dentists, Henry Schein Dental Supply, Oral Arts Dental Laboratories, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, the Alabama Dental Association, the Birmingham District Dental Society, Christ Health Center, Johnson and Johnson, Brasseler USA, and 3M ESPE Dental Products.

HOUSTON – Combining a device called a Zernike phase plate with electron cryo-tomography, a consortium of scientists that includes those from Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) can now “see” the process of virus assembly inside cells.
“This unique facility at Baylor College of Medicine allows us to image marine bacteria infected with bacteriophages with stunning clarity,” said Dr. Wah Chiu, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at BCM and director of the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging. Chiu is corresponding author of a report that appears in the journal Nature (www.nature.com) on the new biological findings with this technique.
He has long pioneered in electron cryo-microscopy, improving the ability to see smaller and smaller objects in greater detail. The technique begins by freezing a biological object such as a cell in a thin layer of ice so quickly that no crystals form, and avoids the use of harsh chemical fixation. The ice-embedded cell is then tilted at different angles and images are taken. Later, they are combined like a CT-scan to reveal the three-dimensional picture.
In this latest advance, in cooperation with technology developer Dr. Kuniaki Nagayama of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences of National Institutes of Natural Sciences in Japan, Chiu and his colleagues added a Zernike phase plate to the cryo-electron microscope to improve the contrast of the images. Zernike phase plates are made from thin carbon film with a tiny, 1-micron (4/100,000ths of an inch) hole that is drilled by a beam of ions. Images from this phase plate-equipped microscope show contrast three to five times greater than is seen in images taken in a normal cryo-electron microscope. The high contrast is accomplished by shifting the phase of scattered electrons, which enhances low-frequency information, enabling the in-focus, high contrast imaging seen on the attached video.
“Dr. Nagayama built on an old concept,” said Chiu. The concept that phase shifts in light passing through a transparent specimen can be translated into brightness changes in the image began with the work of Dr. Frits Zernike, who received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953. Nagayama translated this theory to practical application with his carbon phase plates.
“This marks the first use of this technique to look at the infection process inside the cell and we are able to visualize the assembly process, from baby to mature and infectious entities,” said Chiu.
The marine bacteria under study are photosynthetic organisms responsible for about 25 percent of all carbon fixation (the conversion of inorganic carbon such as carbon dioxide to organic compounds, using sunlight) by living organisms. The viruses (called phages) that infect these bacteria help regulate the marine ecosystem by controlling organization of bacteria community and mediating how genes are transferred from one bacteria to the other in the ocean.
Understanding phage infection and assembly inside the marine bacteria offers the promise of manipulating the bacteria that could be used for bioenergy development, he said. Genes could be inserted to tailor production of specific biofuels, or make it more efficient, or to make the bacteria more resistant to infection.
The technique also has promise in imaging human cells infected with disease-causing viruses, enabling a better understanding of infection.
“Potentially, we could look at neurons and other cells to show what happens inside the cells at different time points after initial viral infection,” said Chiu.
Others who took part in this work include: Wei Dai, Caroline Fu, John Flanagan, Htet A. Khant, Xiangan Liu, Ryan H. Rochat, Steve J. Ludtke, Michael F. Schmid, all of BCM; Desislava Raytcheva, Cameron Haase-Pettingell and Jonathan A. King, all from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; and Jacqueline Piret of Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.