Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 9, 2012

10

THE GOOD LIFE

 Mountain Views-News Saturday June 9, 2012 

THE JOY OF YOGA

ANXIETY & DEPRESSION

SENIOR HAPPENINGS

June Birthdays

Pat Fujiwara, Nellie Haynes, Mary Carney, 
Theresa Daley, Ann Disbrow, Ann Durgerian, 
Joan Ellison, Ruth Kirkby, Irene Kudirka, 
Marilyn McKernan, Anne Montgomery, Dollie 
Morant, Trini Ornelas, Martha Spriggs, Pat Starkey.


JUNE ACTIVITIES

Senior Programs have returned to the Hart 
Park House enior Center, 222 W. Sierra 
Madre Blvd. in Memorial Park - Come by and 
see the changes!!

ene
By Rene Quenell, Founder/Owner

Yoga Madre - Sierra Madre 

Meals-On-Wheels


Mondays: City Hall & Lunch Café 

12 noon: Intervale Lunch Café: Come enjoy 
a hot meal with others. Donation for 
seniors (60+) of $2.00; visitors $3.75. Call 
355-0256 to make your daily reservation.

1:00 pm to 1:45 pm: Strength Training 
with Lisa Brandley. FREE class of stretching 
with light hand weights while you sit.

Tuesdays: 

 FREE blood pressure checks by Methodist 
Hospital Nurse; 11 am to 12 noon.

1:30 pm to 3:30 pm: BINGO; cards are 
only 25 cents each so stop by & play

5:15 pm to 6:45 pm: Yoga; $6.00 - 50 
& over. Please call 355-5278 for more 
information

Wednesdays:

11 –11:45 am: Balance Class with Teryl. 
FREE class designed to improve balance 
& refresh the joints

12 noon: Intervale Lunch Café; daily reservations 
needed 355-0256

2nd Wednesday of the month: FREE Legal 
Consultations: 10-11:30 am. Appointments 
call 355-7394

Wii Wednesday - 1:00 pm or call the senior 
desk at 355-7394 to arrange another 
time & day to learn how to play. No previous 
experience or skills required and it is 
great exercise.

Thursdays:

1:00 to 3:30 pm: Game Day. Join us for 
Poker with Bridge on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays; 
so please call for more information.

Fridays: Intervale Lunch Café; daily reservations 
needed 355-0256

Saturdays: 11:30 am: Senior Club brown 
bag lunch and BINGO at 12:30 pm. 

Meals are delivered to home-
bound seniors by volunteer drivers 
through the YWCA Intervale 
Lunch Program M-F (with frozen meals for the 
weekend.) 

Meals are delivered to the home-bound seniors 
by drivers through the YWCA Interval Lunch 
Program M-F (with frozen meals for the 
weekend.) 

 Call the YWCA at (626) 214-9460 for more 
information. 

Here I go again, claiming that yoga can make you calm and happy. 
But now science is behind the 5,000 year old practices. A 2010 12-
week study compared walking and practicing yoga to see which 
had a greater impact on overall mood. Yoga was the big winner 
with significant results in mood improvement. The study showed 
that yoga increases your mood and decreases anxiety by increasing 
GABA, the relaxation neurotransmitter in the brain. (Yoga 
International Magazine, summer 2012)

But this is not news to the yoga community. We are all here to tell you that we feel better. 
Ask anyone that has a regular practice.

Then there is yoga for cancer and yoga for back pain and yoga for autoimmune diseases. 
There is yoga for weight loss. What comes first? The inner feel good or the stronger back? 
Who cares! Our society is filled with anxiety. We can’t even tell we are anxious anymore 
because it has become our normal state. We are driving and flying in planes. We are on the 
computer and texting and getting immediate gratification and waiting for the next thing to 
make us anxious. Sometimes we even think that it makes us feel good. That is adrenaline. 
It is not until we really calm down and can still experience happiness that we realize the 
difference.

According to yoga science anxiety is a call to action. A feeling to listen to that says: ‘change 
your situation, you may be in danger’. But since we are so used to the feeling we don’t act 
anymore. Prolonged anxiety leads to depression. Depression is even harder to overcome.

The science of yoga was designed to help us find happiness. The easiest way to get there is 
yoga asana, pranayama and meditation. So open up your mind and get into class. You will 
be so HAPPY that you did!

Namasté, René


LUNCH & LEARN 

Join the Senior

Community Commission

at the 

HART PARK HOUSE

 for a FREE presentation. Lunch is 
available for a 

$2 donation 

Call (626) 355-0256 by 

12 noon the day before. 


2012 EXCURSIONS

DIAL - A - RIDE TICKETS

Tickets can now be purchased at:

Sierra Madre City Hall

Sierra Madre Recreation Center

Sierra Madre Library

Friday, June 8th - Nethercutt Collection 
& lunch at the Bear Pit BBQ restaurant. 
June’s adventure takes you to the San 
Fernando Valley to see the museum that 
hous-es over 200 classic cars, antique 
furniture and musical instruments. After 
the guide lead walking tour of the 
collection participants will then enjoy 
lunch (please bring additional money for 
lunch). Bus will depart at 8:45 am and 
return around 3:30 pm. Cost per person 
is $12 for transportation & driver’s tip.

Friday, July 13th - Laguna Beach Pageant 
of the Masters. This annual trip will 
be leaving Sierra Madre at 4:30 pm and 
return around 11:30 pm. Tickets are limited 
to the first 40 registered participants 
and the cost per person is $55.

Registration can be done either in person 
or online at www.cityofsierramadre.
com/onlineregistration


BINGO Tuesday - join us every Tuesday at 
the Hart Park House Senior Center at 1:30 pm 
for this traditional social activity. Bingo cards 
are only 25 cents each.

There will be a special intermission dessert 
& prize at the April 24th game provided by 
Angie Chen of Seniors Helping Seniors - In 
home services for seniors by seniors.

HOW TO CHALLENGE YOUR MEDICAL BILLS

Dear Savvy Senior,

I need some help understanding my medical bills from my knee replacement surgery earlier this year. My 
wife and I live on a pretty tight budget so I like to keep 
track of our costs as closely as possible. But the bills 
I’ve received are vague and confusing, and we think 
we’re being overcharged. What can you tell us? Trying 
To Recover

Dear Trying,

Errors and overcharging have become so commonplace 
on medical bills today that double-checking 
them is a very smart move that may save you some 
money. Here are some tips and tools that can help. 

Challenge Your Bills

According to the Medical Billing Advocates of America, nine out of 10 hospital bills have errors on 
them, most of which are in the hospital’s favor. Bills from doctor’s offices and labs have mistakes too, 
but they tend to be fewer and further apart. 

To help you get a handle on your medical bills and check for costly errors, the first thing you need to 
do is request an itemized statement from the hospital or health care providers detailing the charges 
of the procedures, supplies, tests and services they provided you. They are legally required to provide 
you with this information. 

If the statement contains confusing billing codes or abbreviations that you don’t understand, call the 
billing office for an explanation. You can also look up most medical billing codes online by going to 
any online search engine and typing in “CPT” followed by the code number.

Once you receive and decode the statement, review it carefully and keep your eyes peeled for these 
mistakes: 

• Double billing: Being charged twice for the same services, drugs, or supplies. 

• Typos: Incorrect billing codes or dollar amounts.

• Canceled work: Charging for a test your doctor ordered, then canceled.

• Phantom services: Being charged for services, test or treatments that were never received. 

• Up-coding: Inflated charges for medications and supplies. 

• Incorrect length of stay: Most hospitals will charge for the admission day, but not for day of 
discharge. Be sure you’re not paying for both.

• Incorrect room charges: Being charged for a private room, even if you stayed in a semi-private 
room. 

• Inflated operating room fees: Being billed for more time than was actually used. Compare the 
charge with your anesthesiologist’s records.

To make sure the charges on your bill are reasonably priced, use the Healthcare Blue Book at healthcarebluebook.
com. This is a free resource that lets you look up the going rate of health care costs in 
your area. 

If you find errors or have questions about charges, contact your provider’s billing office and your 
insurer. If they don’t help you and the discrepancies are significant, you should consider getting help 
from a trained professional who specializes in analyzing medical bills and negotiates with health care 
providers, insurers and even collection agencies. 

Most medical bill reviewing professionals charge an hourly fee – somewhere between $50 and $200 
per hour – for their services, or they may work on a contingency basis, earning a commission of 25 
percent to 35 percent of the amount they save you. 

To find help, check out resources like Medical Billing Advocates of America (billadvocates.com), 
MedReview Solutions (medreviewsolutions.com), Hospital Bill Review (hospitalbillreview.com) and 
Medical Cost Advocate (medicalcostadvocate.com). You can find others by doing an Internet search 
under “hospital bill review.”

If you’re a Medicare beneficiary, another resource that may help is your State Health Insurance Assistance 
Program (SHIP). They provide free personalized counseling and may be able to help you get 
a handle on your medical bills and Medicare coverage. To find a local SHIP counselor visit shiptalk.
org, or call 800-677-1116. 

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller 
is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.