| Court makes it easier for patients to enter rehab
Pennsylvanians battling drug and alcohol addiction will not need a second opinion from their HMO before entering treatment programs, a state appeals court ruled. In a unanimous decision released Thursday, Commonwealth Court ruled that group insurance companies and HMOs must cover drug and alcohol treatment costs for policy holders referred to detoxification, rehabilitation and outpatient programs by a doctor or psychologist. The ruling will help about 15,000 state residents with private insurance who seek substance abuse treatment each year, said Deborah Beck, president of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania. It's a really important decision that I think gives power back to doctors and psychologists, said Beck, whose Harrisburg-based organization represents licensed treatment centers and school-run counseling programs.
July 18: Entertainment History
On July 18, 1953, Elvis Presley recorded "My Happiness" as a gift for his mother. It was his first recording.
In 1960, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters released "The Twist." The song didn't take off until Chubby Checker covered it later that year.
In 1966, Bobby Fuller of the Bobby Fuller Four was found dead in his car in Los Angeles. The cause of death was not determined.
In 1974, the United States Justice Department ordered that John Lennon be deported. A federal appeals court overturned the deportation order in 1975. The following year, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. resident status.
In 1991, the first Lollapalooza festival launched in Phoenix, Arizona. It featured Jane's Addiction, Living Colour, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Henry Rollins and Nine Inch Nails.
Cosmetic Breast Implants Linked To Increased Rates Of Suicide, Study Finds
Women who receive cosmetic breast implants are three times more likely to commit suicide than women who do not have cosmetic implants, according to a study published in the August issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery, the Los Angeles Times reports. For the study, Joseph McLaughlin, a professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed data from 3,527 Swedish women who received cosmetic breast implants between 1965 and 1993. Scientists tracked the women for as long as 29 years after surgery. Breast cancer patients who received reconstructive implants were not included in the study.
The study found that the risk of suicide did not increase during the first 10 years after surgery but was 4.5 times higher 10 to 19 years after surgery and six times higher after 20 years (Gellene, Los Angeles Times, 8/8).
Recovering meth addict finds steady course at work, home
Dave Shaffer knows it doesn't sound good. But as chief executive officer of DePaul Industries, he also knows it's the truth. "They're not necessarily poster children for people with disabilities," he said, referring to people such as Harold "Sonny" Reed. Reed, who operates a forklift and has worked for DePaul since 2002, is the type of person the nonprofit company seeks to help gain employment. "They clearly have barriers that are keeping them from being competitively employed," Shaffer said. "But they often times are not disabled enough to be able to receive certain kinds of federal benefits. So, they can be significant problems because they often times revert to drugs. You can give them a handout, but that doesn't really elevate them.
Ray Ray's mom: Public exposure as an addict has helped her turn life around
Oprah Winfrey's camera crew was waiting anxiously outside the dilapidated hotel room, and Tonya McElrathbey wanted no part of it. She had just returned from an all-night bender and wasn't in any mood to reflect on the addiction that her son, Ray Ray McElrathbey, had already exposed for everyone to see. "Ray Ray shut the door and we were both crying," she recalled. "I was a mess. I was so ashamed. I said, 'This is it, Ray Ray. I'm through. I'm done.' " That was last fall, and she said it also was her last time being high. In the grip of drugs for 20 years and hooked on crack cocaine for a decade, she said proudlyand confidently that she has been clean and sober since Oct. 16. She was initially shocked, even a tad offended, when her son recounted her frailties and failures, first to The Post and Courier and then to newspapers, magazines and television programs across the country.
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