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Comment by Jay Lackritz on March 1, 2013 at 6:06am

Just an FYI for anyone who is still receiving social security checks in the mail.
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Social Security deadline arrives for switching to direct deposit

For millions of seniors getting a monthly Social Security check in the mail, time's up.

Today (March 1) is the U.S. Treasury's mandatory deadline for switching over to electronic payments for Social Security and other federal benefits.

That means, unless you're over age 90, the days of a monthly paper check in the mail are coming to an end.

"We are getting lots of calls. People are resigned that they need to switch and they're calling to do so," said Walt Henderson, director of the U.S. Treasury's Go Direct program.

This week, he said, Go Direct's call center has been getting up to 45,000 calls a day.

Since the mandatory switch was announced in April 2011, millions of seniors – some reluctantly – have been signing up for electronic payments, either directly deposited into a bank account or onto a Direct Expressdebit card.

About 94.3 percent of all Social Security and SSI recipients are getting paperless payments, according to Henderson. As of this week, that still leaves roughly 4.25 million seniors who haven't signed up but Henderson said he's hopeful of getting "close to 100 percent" compliance.

"All we're doing is changing the delivery," said Henderson. "We're not requiring you to get on the Internet or buy a computer. We're putting an electronic deposit into your bank account. Beyond that, we're not changing anything."

Anyone who turned 90 as of May 1, 2011, isn't required to sign up for electronic payments.

Read on:
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/01/5227354/social-security-deadline-a...

Comment by DAP1122 (Don) on November 27, 2012 at 11:25am

Doctor from first kidney transplant in 1954 passed away - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/health/dr-joseph-e-murray-transpl...

Comment by Forest (Eugene) on November 25, 2012 at 2:52pm

I like the new look very much!

Comment by Hostess Risé on November 25, 2012 at 1:53pm

Did you notice the new look on Transplant Friends?  I just had an interior designer come over my house- LOL

Comment by Rachel on August 28, 2012 at 10:02pm

In this afternoons news  they finally mentioned for tx pts to be extra careful after 6/7pm with the mosquitos.   If you're having flu like symptoms to get tested right away.  I was outside watering around 6:45pm and I thought I saw a mosq. buzzing around OH NO, I threw the hose and turned it off and went inside.  :)  

Comment by livecam on August 25, 2012 at 11:44pm

No bueno.  http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_21398862/official-kidney-o...

Comment by Hostess Risé on August 21, 2012 at 7:07pm

http://now.msn.com/study-shows-triclosan-chemical-in-hand-sanitizer...

Comment by Jay Lackritz on April 8, 2012 at 5:24am

Five Face Charges in China Over Sale of Youth’s Kidney
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: April 7, 2012
BEIJING (AP) — The authorities have indicted five people in central China on charges of involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and an iPad.
The case has prompted an outpouring of concern that not enough is being done to guard against the negative impact of increasing consumerism in Chinese society, particularly among young people.
Prosecutors in the city of Chenzhou charged the suspects with intentional injury for organizing the removal and transplant of a kidney from a 17-year-old high school student identified as Wang, his surname, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Friday.
A woman on duty on Saturday at the Chenzhou Beihu District People’s Procuratorate court in Hunan Province confirmed that the defendants were facing charges of intentional injury.
The defendants include a surgeon, a hospital contractor and brokers accused of looking for donors and leasing an operating room to conduct the procedure, Xinhua said.
The news agency said that about 1.5 million people in China needed organ transplants, but that only about 10,000 were performed each year, fueling an illegal trade in organs.
Xinhua described one of the defendants, He Wei, as being broke and frustrated over gambling debts. It said he had asked another defendant to look for organ donors in online chat rooms and someone else to lease an operating room for the transplant, which took place last year.
He received $35,000 for the transplant, gave the student $3,500 and shared the rest with the other defendants and medical workers involved in the operation, Xinhua said.
When the student was asked at home how he could afford a new iPhone and an iPad, he told his mother that he had sold one of his kidneys, the report said.
A newspaper, The Southern Daily, reported last month that other people had sold, or had seriously considered selling, their kidneys to earn money for reasons like paying off debts, buying a smartphone or paying for an abortion for a girlfriend.
Without facing complete hardship, these young people born after the 1990s made rash decisions, the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily said in an editorial last month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/world/asia/5-face-trial-after-chi...

Comment by Jay Lackritz on March 9, 2012 at 9:58am

Study suggests breakthrough in organ transplants

A small pilot study indicates that following up an imperfectly matched organ transplant with an infusion of the donor's stem cells may free recipients from a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs.

By Melissa Healy Los Angeles Times March 8, 2012

Patients who are lucky enough to get a transplant for a failed organ usually face a lifetime on anti-rejection drugs, which are expensive, dangerous and not always effective.

But in the future, those drugs may not be needed. A new study suggests that patients receiving an organ that's less than a perfect match can be protected against rejection by a second transplant — this time of the organ donor's imperfectly matched stem cells.

Though preliminary, the new study is being hailed as a potential game-changer in the field of transplantation, a mystifying development that could offer hope to hundreds of thousands of patients who await or have received donor kidneys and depend on a harsh regimen of daily anti-rejection pills.

The small pilot study, reported Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, describes a novel regimen that combined old-fashioned cancer treatments with 21st century cell therapy to induce five patients' immune systems to accept donor kidneys as their own despite significant incompatibility.

If the technique proves successful in a larger group of people, future transplant patients may need to take anti-rejection drugs only briefly, and some who rely on them now could discontinue them safely. The recipients of kidneys as well as other organs, including heart, lung, liver and pancreas, might also benefit from access to a wider pool of organs.

The strategy could offer hope, too, for patients receiving bone marrow transplants to treat blood cancers, speeding the process of finding a donor by allowing physicians to use stem cells that today would be rejected as incompatible.

read on....
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-kidney-transplant-stem-cells-20...

Comment by Forest (Eugene) on December 28, 2011 at 12:05pm

I had my liver/kidney transplant August 21, 2011 in St. Louis, and I am doing very well so far. All my blood work has been good, no diseases or problems! God Bless you all! Happy Healthy New year!

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