American Disability and Health News - October - 03 - 2008

Snippets of news and events regarding health and disabilities in America including news for US seniors and veterans.

NEW YORK - Four NYPD police officers who contracted the HIV virus while on duty have been granted disability pensions. The cases were disclosed as part of a lawsuit filed by a retired female officer who says she too was infected on the job and wants a tax-free pension. One of the male officers told the NYPD pension board he was infected when he reached into a suspect's underwear to retrieve drugs, the second that he was bitten by an HIV-positive suspect, the third that he was cut by a razor while frisking a suspect.

The president of the Long Island Rail Road, responding to revelations that more than 90 percent of retiring employees have been granted disability benefits by the federal Railroad Retirement Board in recent years, called Thursday for legislation to overhaul the board. Helena Williams also said she is requiring all 6,800 LIRR employees to undergo additional ethics training and established a hot line for employees and the public to report suspected fraud, waste and abuse. With four government agencies already investigating the awarding of disability payments to thousands of former Long Island Rail Road employees, the railroad’s president turned up the pressure on Thursday by announcing the forming of a special internal unit to scrutinize the railroad’s dealings with the federal agency that approves disability applications.

An estimated 43 million Americans, one in five people, have some type of disability, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And a new CDC study finds that black, Hispanic and Native Americans with a disability report fair or poor health at disproportionately higher rates than white or Asian Americans. Overall, adults with a disability were less likely to report excellent or very good health (27.2 percent vs. 60.2 percent), and were more likely to report being in fair or poor health (40.3 percent vs. 9.9 percent), when compared to people without a disability, according to the report.

The Christian Blind Mission announces the publication of a new manual on including persons with disabilities in development projects. The manual is part of the “Mainstreaming Disability in Development Cooperation” project funded by the European Commission. The purpose of the manual is to give guidance and practical tools to operational staff to include a disability perspective in the Project Cycle Management.

The Kiwanis Miracle League at Principal Park is a $1.2 million project that opened Sunday in Des Moines, next to the home of the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. The park allows children with a wide range of disabilities, including those who are blind, have spina bifida or other disabilities, to play ball. "With so many children being born everyday with disabilities, this program becomes more and more important," said Diane Alford, an executive director for the Miracle League. "It's about a better way of life." All special-needs children from 5 to 18 years old are eligible. Further reading

Health and Disability News for American Seniors:

The list of scams keeps on growing. The South Carolina Office on Aging said they're learning about a new one each week. People pretending to give away prizes, or claim to be with a certain charity, or even selling magazine subscriptions. They're all looking for personal information or to rip seniors off. There's one scam in particular they're looking at right now, dealing with voter registration. Criminals try to convince the senior they can help them sign up, then get all their personal information. Further reading

Providing an independent and unbiased third party review of companies and employees who serve senior citizens in their homes, SeniorChecked has been released by Silver Nation, LLC in the Washington, DC market to combat the rise in elder abuse, financial exploitation and crimes against seniors. Further reading

Schwarzenegger has signed AB 2150 by assembly member Patty Berg that helps protect consumers by preventing the financial abuse of seniors. AB 2150 provides that insurance agents and brokers may not use a "senior" designation in the course of marketing and selling insurance products unless they have completed required hours of training, and the designation has been approved by the Insurance Commissioner. This new law will prohibit agents and brokers from misrepresenting themselves as senior experts, which has previously resulted in seniors making poor investments or becoming victims of fraud.

A federal judge ruled this week that FedEx Field - the Washington, D.C. area football stadium - must do more to accommodate hearing impaired patrons and must begin captioning all music lyrics broadcast over the stadium's public address system. The decision, in a lawsuit filed by deaf and hard of hearing Washington Redskins fans, appears to be the first such ruling under the Americans with Disabilities Act and could lead to similar challenges around the country, an attorney for the plaintiffs said.

Health and Disability News for American Veterans:

"We want to remind seniors, veterans and others that do not typically file a tax return on a yearly basis, that in order to receive a stimulus check, they must file a 2007 tax return by October 15," said Mark Steber, vice president of Tax Resources, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. All that's required is that qualifying taxpayers file a 2007 tax return with a valid Social Security number and report at least $3,000 of qualifying income, such as Social Security benefits or veterans' disability compensation, pension, or survivors' benefits received from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

An estimated 50 million Americans lack medical insurance, and a similar and rapidly growing number are underinsured. The uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for services, and die when medical care could save them—an estimated 18,000 die each year because they lack medical coverage. But it's not only the uninsured who suffer. Of the more than 1.5 million bankruptcies filed in the U.S. each year, about half are a result of medical bills; of those, three-quarters of filers had health insurance. Further reading

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