Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 4

Nation A4 Arizona Daily Star Sunday, May 22, 2005 Medicare revised to handbook is being clear up confusion Cleveland house fire kills 7kids, 2 adults by the insurers. By contrast, traditional Medicare is offered by the government throughout the country, with uniform premiums and co-payments set by law. Beneficiaries may have to pay more in some private fee-for-service plans than in traditional Medicare. Vicki Gottlich, a lawyer at the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a nonprofit group that counsels beneficiaries, said it was "inaccurate and misleading" to emphasize the similarities between traditional Medicare and the private fee-for-service plans. Gary R.

Karr, a spokesman at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency was revising the 106-page handbook to address such concerns. The handbook, he said, will include "a more detailed description" of the new drug benefit, including the gap in coverage, and will clarify the differences between traditional Medicare and private plans. THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON For two years, health policy experts have been warning that Medicare beneficiaries may be confused by complexities of the new prescription drug benefit. Now it turns out that Medicare officials were also confused, not just about the drug benefit but also about other options. The Bush administration is revising the 2006 Medicare handbook the main tool for educating beneficiaries after discovering that many statements in the first draft of the document are inaccurate, misleading or incomprehensible, even to people who have worked on the program for decades.

Members of Congress, insurance companies, advocates for beneficiaries and state insurance regulators all told the Bush administration that the new handbook was flawed. For example, in describing the drug benefit, the handbook 1 I Sit, i rtfi New York City police and firefighters investigate at the site where a small sightseeing plane crashed on a Coney Island beach, killing all four people aboard. says, "After you meet the deductible, you pay part of the cost of covered prescription drugs, and the plan pays part." The handbook does not mention that beneficiaries face a gap in coverage. After the beneficiary pays a $250 deductible, Medicare pays three-fourths of the next $2,000 in drug costs. But then the beneficiary is normally responsible for all of the next $2,850, and Medicare pays nothing.

Moreover, the handbook lumped together the traditional government-run Medicare program, which covers 36 million people, and tiny private fee-for-service health plans, in which fewer than 100,000 beneficiaries have enrolled. Both, it says, are "fee-for-service plans, available nationwide." In fact, the two are fundamentally different. Private fee-for-service plans are available in selected counties from private insurance companies under contract to Medicare, with premiums and co-payments set ff I i San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, CA All rights reserved. Bond No. S7BSBBZ3253 I m-.

mm (( y) '-') vw; ro. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CLEVELAND A fire broke out at a crowded house during a children's sleepover early Saturday, killing seven kids and two adults, the Fire Department said. The fire was so hot it scorched the frame of the home jet-black and forced back neighbors who had rushed in to help. Eleven people were in the house when the blaze started about 3 a.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Tim O'Toole. The victims were from 4 to 34, and at least one of the children was at the house for a sleepover, O'Toole said.

A mother and several of her children were among those authorities and neighbors said. It was unclear whether the others were related. Two other people at the house survived. Richard Carter told WKYC-TV that he lost his daughter and several grandchildren in the blaze. "I just want somebody to pray for me and my family," he said through tears as he trembled in the chilly spring air.

The mother, identified by the coroner's office as Media Carter, was well known in the neighborhood for welcoming her children's friends into her home, offering them rides to school and hosting sleepovers. Authorities said Carter lived in the house with her six children. "She was real respected. She treated me like a son," said Devon Cabeza, 14. Three of the children died of smoke inhalation and burns, said Dr.

Heather Raaf, an assistant Cuyahoga County coroner. Raaf said the remaining six autopsies would be done today. No further information on the victims' identities was immediately available. An investigation into the fire's cause centered on the house's first floor, which sustained heavy fire damage, O'Toole said. The second floor, where all the bodies were found, was heavily damaged by smoke and soot, he said.

Much of the white, wood-frame house was charred and the roof over the front porch was partially collapsed. Every visible window had been shattered. As daylight broke, dozens of neighbors, family and friends gathered near the scene, hugging and crying as they surveyed the damage. A smell of soot hung in the air, and firefighters shoveled debris onto a small fenced front yard. Neta Dawson, who lives across the street, said she awoke in the early morning to loud pops that sounded like gunfire.

She said her son, Jennings Dawson, owned the house where Carter lived and took good care of it but didn't live there himself. "He's taking it hard," said Neta Dawson, 69. Auction Appraisal Dates Consignments are being accepted for Fall Bonhams Butterfields auctions in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Our specialists from the following departments will be visiting Arizona in June to evaluate your property. June 7-8, Fine Jewelry and Timepieces June 14-16, Fine Prints and Photographs, 20th Century Works of Art June -14 16, European Paintings June 21 23, Asian Works of Art June 22 24, European and American Furniture and Decorative Arts June 27 29, Native American, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Works of Art Adam Rountree The Associated Press The Al Salam Mosque Foundation sued Palos Heights in 2000, alleging religious discrimination and breach of contract, but the jury rejected the claims Friday.

The City Council had offered the foundation $200,000 to drop its plan to buy the Reformed Church of Palos Heights. At the time, aldermen insisted they offered the payment so the city could buy the church and convert it into recreation space. An attorney representing the mosque originally said the group would turn down the offer. Later, he said the group would rather accept the money and remove itself from the politically charged debate. IOWA Mom helps police in Web sex bust GARNER A mother posed as her daughter on the Internet and helped police nab a man who was trying to solicit the 14-year-old for sex, authorities said.

Richard H. Johanson, 36, of Short Hills, N.J., was being held Saturday in the Hancock County jail. He has been charged with attempted third-degree sexual abuse and enticing away a minor. He was arrested Thursday night after police received a tip from the mother, authorities said. The teen did not log out of a chat room before she went to bed, and the mother, using the girl's screen name, discovered that Johanson was pressing the 14-year-old for a meeting, police said.

Wire reports 1 Bonhams Butterfields, 220 2005, Bonhams Butterfields Auctioneers Corp, a i mw 1 Around the NEW YORK Beach plane crash kills all 4 aboard NEW YORK A small sightseeing plane making a sharp turn at low altitude lost power and crashed on the beach at Coney Island yester- day, killing all four people on board, the police said. No one on the beach was injured. Witnesses said tie plane, a white single-engine Cessna 172S, flew in from over the ocean shortly after 1:30 p.m. at about the height of Coney Island's famed Parachute Jump, and then banked sharply left as it approached the shoreline. The engine appeared to stall, they said, and the aircraft plunged into the sand halfway between the sea and the Boardwalk.

About a dozen people ran toward the plane to try to help. Police cars and fire engines swarmed to the scene, but by the time help arrived it was too late for the victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene. The three passengers were all from West Virginia. ILLINOIS Muslims' rights not violated: jury CHICAGO A federal jury has found that a Chicago suburb didn't violate the civil rights of a Muslim group that claims city officials conspired to foil its plans to turn a vacant church into a mosque and1 school. MOIIAWK alue Plank 29 S.F.

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