By R. Thurston Clark, Chair, Committee on Aging, Haddam.
(Nov. 17, 2020) — The COA is a group of up to twelve (12) members who advocate on issues related to the senior community of Haddam, Higganum & Haddam Neck. We typically meet the 3rd Monday of each month, September thru June, but this year, because of the Covid-19 virus, we didn’t meet in March thru June or September.
For our November meeting we invited Greg McKenna of Nutmeg Pharmacy to talk to us about “Open Enrollment” and the Covid-19 vaccinations that should be available in a month or two.
Open Enrollment: Depending on which TV station you watch, you may have seen a bunch of different phone numbers that you can call about Medicare Advantage plans “that may be of no cost to you.” Well, remember what was said about an offer that seems too good to be true! In actuality these are offices of private companies that want to sell you a Plan for typically thousands of dollars per year. If you are retired and only have Medicare Part A/B that means you don’t have coverage for prescriptions, hearing or vision coverage. These Advantage Plans will cover you for this, for a fee, but they don’t all provide the same coverage. What you need to do is either go to the internet www.Medicare.gov/finder or talk to someone familiar with this topic. Also understand that some of these “plans” will end up reducing or changing your A/B coverage, e.g. restrict the doctor or medical facility you can use, mail you prescriptions vs. being able to pick them up at a pharmacy.
I have three suggestions:
- Jessica Condil, Haddam’s Dir. Senior & Social Services (860-345-4621) she can get you started in the right direction.
- Greg McKenna (860-345-3607) who says he purchased a program that can give you a complete evaluation in 15 minutes. You can leave a message for him to call you back or arrange to see one of his staff at the Nutmeg Pharmacy in Higganum.
- State of CT “Choices,” they have local folks you can talk to at 860-887-3561
Covid-19 Virus vaccinations: Pfizer and Moderna are two pharmaceutical firms that are very close to making a Covid-19 vaccination available to the public. They and a few others have already tested possible vaccinations on 30,000 folks. Side effects, they haven’t found anything serious yet, but you may get a low grade fever and some joint pain after both shots. Nutmeg Pharmacy has already spent $18,000 on a freezer for this stuff that has to be kept very cold. A couple of weeks ago it looked like CVS was trying to monopolize all of the vaccinations (they dispense about 70% of the prescriptions in the US), but the CDC has moved to allow other pharmacies to obtain vaccinations that are given in two shots a few days apart. Nutmeg Pharmacy has ordered three groups of 4,000 shots for their Haddam, East Haddam & Centerbrook stores. Mr. McKenna says he has 1,600 Haddam “primary care” individuals who are eligible to get the inoculations first. At about 800 per day that should go quickly, so he doesn’t see any reason that he can’t accommodate the residents of Haddam, Higganum and Haddam Neck who want an inoculation too, just list yourself on his web site www.NutmegPharmacy.com.
Also discussed at our meeting were updates from the Dir. Senior & Social Services, and Coordinator of the Senior Center, e.g. Colleen Totman said she gave out 175 box lunches last month and 74 individuals gathered at the Center to “socialize.” The Senior Van provided a dozen folks rides to medical appointments and the Senior & Social Services Director has been very busy providing food bank items or just needed help with medical paperwork. The point here is that staff of the town of Haddam continues to provide services to public during the Covid-19 virus situation, so don’t hesitate to contact them.
The COA meetings are open to the general public, but due to the increasing number Covid-19 infections we seniors agreed not to meet in person until Spring. In the meantime we may have e-mail discussions or Zoom meetings, if we can figure out how to do that.
