I’m backmost aft a two-week stint successful our Beacon Journal mobile newsroom successful Firestone Park, wherever chap newsman Anthony Thompson and I got to cognize the assemblage amended and report astir it.
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Here are a fewer consumer-related items that are worthy sharing:
Clean retired your medicine cabinets
This Saturday is 1 of 2 days per twelvemonth acceptable speech arsenic National Take Back Day, a one-day lawsuit that encourages radical to dispose of their medicine and over-the-counter medications.
Sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the lawsuit encourages the nationalist to region unneeded medications from their homes to forestall medicine misuse and opioid summation from ever starting.
National Take Back Day is usually the past Saturday successful April and October, said Darryl Brake, enforcement manager of the Summit County Community Partnership, the region cause maltreatment prevention coalition.
To find the closest drop-off Saturday, spell to www.dea.gov/takebackday. Many section constabulary departments are drop-off locations and person a year-round receptacle successful their parking tons to discard drugs. On Take Back Day, Brake said, spouse locations manus retired free drug-deactivation bags for the unwanted pills. Once filled with water, the pouches deactivate drugs and render the chemic compounds harmless for landfills. Additionally, the pouches are made of a plant-based material, truthful they're harmless for the situation and landfills, said Brake.
Betty Lin-Fisher: Do your part; cleanable retired your unused, expired painkillers and medicines with easy-to-use escaped pouch
If you bash instrumentality your unwanted pills to a drop-off receptacle, archetypal region immoderate medicine statement with your sanction oregon accusation connected it, and you tin driblet the vessel with the pills close successful the receptacle, said Brake.
While the one-day events are a bully mode to get radical to cleanable retired their medicine cabinets and support unwanted medicine drugs from being misused — particularly if they person a batch to cleanable retired — the drug-deactivation bags are the astir convenient mode to cleanable retired medicine cabinets twelvemonth round.
The Summit County Community Partnership has been moving with assorted organizations, getting donations and grants for the past six years to connection the escaped deactivation pouches astatine respective country locations. All Acme Fresh Market pharmacy locations have them. You tin besides cheque with different pharmacies to spot if they person the bags.
Brake said his enactment has fixed retired much than 200,000 pouches successful the past six years.
“Most individuals that are suffering with addiction get their pills from household and friends astatine immoderate constituent successful time," helium said. He recommends disposing of medicine drugs that are nary longer needed and locking up the ones inactive successful use.
While the main intent of the bags is to wide retired medicine drugs, Brake said it is besides a harmless mode to dispose of over-the-counter medications. Brake asks that consumers capable retired the postcard attached to the bags and bespeak if medicine oregon over-the-counter medicine was enactment successful the pouch.
The enactment uses ZIP codification information and information from the nationalist wellness section and coroner’s bureau to proviso much deactivation bags successful ZIP codes with precocious overdoses.
Watch accounts for duplicate charges
Fred M., a longtime scholar from Hudson, contacted maine aft noticing a cheque helium had written to an HVAC contractor for $474 was cashed doubly against his slope account. It was archetypal photographed and deposited arsenic a mobile deposit by the contractor and past again 10 days later, it was inadvertently processed by the contractor’s office.
Fred noticed the duplication erstwhile helium was reconciling his slope connection the pursuing month. He was amazed that fail-safe measures astatine the bank, particularly with mobile depositing, didn’t drawback the duplicate withdrawal to his account. The HVAC institution apologized if the mistake was connected their portion and confirmed that they did not person the funds twice.
The bank, KeyBank, wrong days of being notified of the duplication and investigating, returned the other $474 to Fred’s account.
Fred said his acquisition is simply a reminder to support a adjacent oculus connected your accounts and what should beryllium coming successful and retired — adjacent if galore consumers whitethorn not reconcile their accounts these days.
We “still can’t judge the bank’s information measures could let such,” helium wrote. “Basically our knowing of the bank’s effect is errors hap and the lawsuit needs to beryllium diligent successful monitoring their accounts for mistakes.”
When I reached retired to KeyBank, a spokesperson said helium could not sermon information measures that are successful spot and does not remark connected clients oregon whether they are a client.
He did supply immoderate wide information measures for consumers, which don’t code the duplicate cheque deposit, but are inactive bully tips:
- If depositing a cheque via your mobile account, people ‘for mobile deposit only’ connected the backmost erstwhile making a deposit. Keep the cheque for 7 days.
- Account alerts tin beryllium acceptable up successful online and mobile banking to show your relationship equilibrium and immoderate debit/credit to your relationship and person contiguous alerts erstwhile idiosyncratic ID/password/personal accusation person been requested oregon changed.
- Enable multi-factor authentication. This makes it much hard for others to summation entree to your account.
- Create beardown passwords that are lengthy and incorporate some numerals and letters. Do not usage the aforesaid password for aggregate sites.
- Always beryllium diligent astir monitoring your accounts for unauthorized transactions and instantly study immoderate suspected fraud to your fiscal institution.
Similarly, I didn’t get acold erstwhile I tried to scope retired to the American Banking Association, the commercialized relation for the banking manufacture to sermon information measures for cheque deposits.
Spokesperson Sarah Grano said: “Banks marque bonzer efforts to safeguard lawsuit accounts and forestall astir 90% of deposit relationship fraud attempts each year. We’ve precocious seen criminals gravitate backmost toward cheque fraud, but fortunately banks are well-equipped to drawback it acknowledgment to blase fraud prevention systems and changeless vigilance by dedicated employees. It’s important to retrieve that slope customers are mostly protected against losses owed to unauthorized transactions if they are reported successful a timely fashion. They should show their accounts regularly and study immoderate suspected fraud immediately.”
Free at-home COVID-19 tests
On Sept. 2, the national authorities ended its programme to person escaped at-home COVID-19 tests done the U.S. Postal Service, but you tin inactive get escaped tests if you person security done your employer, done the national Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, Medicare oregon Medicaid.
Each idiosyncratic connected your program is eligible for up to 8 escaped at-home tests a month.
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Each insurer seems to bash it a small differently. Some volition fto you get the tests astatine nary outgo done an in-network pharmacy; others necessitate you to bargain the tests yourself and past taxable a assertion with a receipt done your security to get reimbursed. Check with your security supplier for much details.
Also, if you person immoderate older at-home tests, don’t propulsion them distant if their printed expiration day has passed without doing immoderate other checking. The Food and Drug Administration has extended the expiration dates for astir at-home trial kits. You tin spell to this link — https://tinyurl.com/4au7nv4s — to find the marque of trial you person and past click connected different nexus to look up the batch fig (printed adjacent the expiration date) to find the updated expiration date. Some older at-home tests from earlier successful the pandemic whitethorn beryllium past the extended expiration dates, but galore of the ones sent done the escaped national programme person the extended expiration dates.
Still, with thing that is free, determination are ever going to beryllium scammers trying to instrumentality vantage of the situation. The Federal Trade Commission is informing against scammers who person been targeting Medicare recipients, calling them oregon moving ads and asking for a person’s Medicare accusation and fraudulently billing Medicare for the tests.
The FTC reminds radical that Medicare volition not telephone you with an connection of escaped tests. The FTC besides says bash not springiness retired your relationship accusation to anyone who calls you retired of the bluish asking for it.
Beware of scams
While we are talking astir scams, whenever determination is simply a large event, similar Hurricane Ian, oregon thing that affects a batch of people, similar unfastened enrollment for Medicare Advantage plans oregon the caller opening of the exertion process for the national pupil indebtedness indebtedness alleviation program, you tin stake determination are scammers retired there, too.
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Scammers are retired successful afloat unit for each three. Be cautious and marque definite you are going to the close websites, and if you spot emails oregon texts oregon get telephone calls, beryllium wary of the source.
- If you privation to find a foundation that is helping with Hurricane Ian relief, marque definite you bash immoderate homework and find the close website. The American Red Cross is astatine www.redcross.org. You tin besides cheque connected a foundation astatine www.guidestar.org.
- If you missed my Medicare Advantage unfastened enrollment coverage successful past Sunday’s paper, you tin find it astatine www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher. More accusation astir Medicare unfastened enrollment tin beryllium recovered astatine www.medicare.gov.
- The student indebtedness indebtedness alleviation program exertion tin beryllium recovered at: https://studentaid.gov/debt-relief/application
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Betty Lin-Fisher tin beryllium reached astatine 330-996-3724 oregon blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ connected Twitter oregon www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ. To spot her astir caller stories and columns, spell to www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher.
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