16 Jul, 2018

Seniors will be able to get an update on financial elder abuse on Friday July 20 at the Oldemeyer Center at 986 Hilby Avenue in Seaside from 1:00 to 3:00.  Presenting will be the Real Estate Fraud Advisory Team (REFAT) which was formed in 2016 by the Santa Cruz and San Benito County District Attorney’s offices after a number of seniors were defrauded.  REFAT now has representatives from real estate brokers and agents, lenders, escrow and title companies, notaries public, real estate attorneys

14 Jul, 2018

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo is warning local senior citizens that new Medicare cards which, ironically, were designed to protect seniors from identity theft are actually giving scam artists an angle to try to rip them off.  Typically, the fraudsters call and pretend to be a Medicare representative and claim they are calling to update their records.  “Half the scam is to cold-call as many seniors as you can and hope to hit the jackpot with a senior who falls for the call,” James

13 Jul, 2018

Several member of Congress have demanded that the Department of Veterans Affairs release nursing home data that the agency has kept secret for years, according to a probe done by USA Today and the Boston Globe.  The VA has said that the story (which is based on VA data) is  “fake news.”  The documents showed that the VA’s 133 nursing homes scored worse on average than private sector homes on key quality indicators.  Thus far, the VA has refused to release the underlying quality data although

12 Jul, 2018

President Donald Trump has scored his first major victory with Big Pharma, getting Pfizer Inc. to temporarily back off on price increases on 40 prescription drugs that it had announced last week it was raising prices for.  The about face is unusual and it’s not clear what made Pfizer change their minds on the price increases.  Pfizer, however, has been a supporter of the Trump Administration. https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-to-roll-back-price-increases-after-trump-criticism-1531265030

11 Jul, 2018

Beginning in the second quarter of this year, Medicare started offering a new benefit that aims to help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes onset.  Dubbed The Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program, it includes 16 group sessions over a six-month period with the goal of helping people with prediabetes make long term changes to their eating habits and physical activity.  It also has a goal of weight loss of at least 5%, which has been shown to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.  For more information go

10 Jul, 2018

It’s an extremely difficult conversation to have with a parent when you feel like it's no longer safe for them to drive.  There are, however, third party resources that you can use to open up this conversation like the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which has a 15-question exam that can be taken online called the “Drivers 65 Plus: Check Your Performance.”  An additional 12 pages of materials offer suggestions on improving driving skills.  Another resource is the University of Michigan which