GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of America’s largest drug makers, has agreed to a  $3 Billion drug fraud settlement for questionable sales and marketing practices, including their diabetes drug Avandia.

The $3 Billion settlement represents the largest ever drug-company settlement, surpassing the more than $2 Billion paid by drug maker Pfizer for illegally promoting off-label uses of four of its drugs.

The settlement, considered extraordinarily large by most people’s standards, represents only a slap on the wrist to the drug giant, which has a market value of more than $110 billion, according to the New York Times.

GSK’s massive financial clout allows them to engage in criminal behavior that they can later buy their way out of – kind of like the way you might pay for a speeding ticket.

Read more at Mini Pharmacy’s Diabetes Supplies blog.

Safety should be paramount when children are concerned, but hazards abound causing thousands of children treated in emergency rooms across the country.

Just as any other dangerous product may cause injuries, so may defective cribs and other defective baby products. When a baby is involved, however, the consequences can be even more devastating. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) keeps a watchful eye on the manufacture of cribs and other baby products, but even so, some hazardous items manage to make it into the stream of commerce, often with tragic consequences.

The CPSC has published guidelines and other information to help parents and other caregivers be on the alert for and guard against accidents and injuries relating to cribs and other baby products. Sometimes, however, even the most diligent parents are confronted with the knowledge that a product they have chosen has caused harm to their baby. In such cases, an experienced products liability or personal injury attorney can help determine whether a valid claim exists and provide information and representation throughout the entire legal process, in order to ensure that the injured parties secure the compensation to which they are entitled.

From the moment a child is born, products intended to be used by or for him or her must be selected with safety in mind. Parents and caretakers of babies and young children must be aware of potential hazards in the child’s environment-hazards not only from the incorrect use of products, but also from products not well designed for their intended purpose.

The baby product that appears to pose the greatest hazard is the crib. More infants die every year in accidents involving cribs than from any other nursery product, and thousands more are seriously enough injured to require treatment in hospital emergency rooms. In addition, crib gyms and other toys that stretch across the crib with strings, cords, or ribbons can be hazardous for older or more active babies. The CPSC has been notified of cases in which infants strangled or became entangled in crib gyms and similar playthings.

Baby gates, too, while intended to prevent accidents and injuries, can instead cause harm. A risk of entrapment and strangulation is presented by accordion-style baby gates that have large V-shaped openings along the top edge and diamond-shaped openings between the slats. The CPSC has received reports of deaths that occurred when a child’s head was entrapped in the V-shaped or diamond-shaped openings as the child attempted to crawl through or over the gates. Although these accordion-style gates have not been sold since 1985, parents may still find them at yard sales or in thrift stores. Circular wooden enclosures that expand, accordion-style, may present the same entrapment and strangulation hazards as the accordion-style gates. The CPSC reports that deaths have occurred when children got their necks caught in the V-shaped openings along the top edge of the enclosure, apparently as they attempted to climb out. As a result, the CPSC strongly advises against the use of accordion-style expandable enclosures with V-shaped or diamond-shaped openings.

In addition, every year, thousands of children are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with high chairs. Even high-chair-related deaths have occurred. The majority of the non-death injuries resulted from falls when restraining straps were not used and the children were not properly supervised. The majority of the deaths occurred when children slipped under the tray and strangled. Most often, these children were entirely unrestrained or were restrained only by a waist belt. To help prevent these tragic injuries and deaths, high chairs should have both a waist strap and a strap that runs between the child’s legs.

Defective playpens may also pose a risk of serious injury to infants and toddlers. Deaths have occurred, for instance, when the drop-sides of mesh playpens and similar cribs were left down. When a mesh side is down, the mesh hangs loosely and forms a pocket between the edge of the floor panel and the side of the playpen. Infants as young as a few weeks old can move to the edge and fall into the loose mesh pocket, where they may be trapped and suffocate. New mesh-sided playpens with drop-sides have warning labels that alert parents and other caregivers to never leave infants in playpens with the sides down. Older mesh playpens and cribs do not, however, have these warning labels, and many of these products are still in use. Deaths have also occurred in playpens or travel cribs with a rotating hinge in the center of the top rails to enable the product to be folded into a compact package. These deaths occurred when the top rails collapsed and formed a V-shape that entrapped the child’s neck. The CPSC has recalled several brands of playpens with this type of rotating latch in the center of the top rails.

Rattles and other infant toys, toy chests, walkers, carriers, bassinets, cradles, changing tables, crib sheets, pacifiers, strollers, and carriages have all also been the cause of injuries and the impetus for CPSC action. If one of these or any other baby product has been the source of injury to your child, seek legal counsel at once so that you can protect and preserve your right to collect the damages to which your family is legally entitled.

More information on defective products and defects is available at www.rftmlaw.com.

This article is from the Wall Street Journal, written by Jessica Silver-Greenberg.

DON’T BUY TOO MUCH INSURANCE!

In this age of hurricanes, tsunamis, market crashes and banking crises, it isn’t any wonder that people are feeling insecure. Companies are responding by rolling out a raft of newfangled insurance policies designed to protect against real—and perceived—risks.

Last month, for example, Home Value Insurance introduced a policy that promises to protect Ohio homeowners from tumbling property values. The firm plans to expand its offerings across the U.S. Great American Insurance Group, meanwhile, in August started selling policies that provide supplemental unemployment insurance, pitched as a way to guard against sudden job loss.

And earlier this year, American Express introduced an identity-theft protection service that helps policyholders detect fraudulent activity on their credit cards, while lender SLM, commonly known as Sallie Mae, began offering tuition insurance if a student drops out of college for medical reasons.

It is only natural to want to protect your family. But some insurance products that sound good don’t hold up to closer scrutiny.

 

Edison

Loading up on policies “makes sense as a psychological phenomenon, but it doesn’t make financial sense,” says Zur Shapira, a professor of management at New York University who has studied insurance. After all, the more money you spend on protection, the less money you will have left to protect.

“If you can afford to replace it, don’t insure it,” says J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America and a former Texas insurance commissioner.

Christine Schmitz, a certified financial planner in Owing Mills, Md., recommends focusing on getting the most value from traditional insurance policies and skipping the rest. “Make sure you have great health insurance,” Ms. Schmitz says. “Don’t spend the extra $100 buying piecemeal insurance coverage.”

Start by asking the following questions, says Scott Simmonds, an independent insurance consultant in Soto, Maine: How long will I have to wait before the coverage kicks in? What is excluded from coverage? How long will the coverage last? Then weigh those answers against the policy’s cost.

Also, ask a prospective insurer for the “loss ratio,” which measures how much of your premiums are paid out in benefits, says Glenn Daily, a New York-based insurance consultant. The higher the number, the better the value. But be prepared: Firms aren’t required to provide that information to policyholders, Mr. Daily says.

Here is a guide to the insurance policies you can safely skip—and those you shouldn’t be without.

Juvenile Life Insurance

Just had a baby? Chances are that you will get an offer to buy the infant life insurance. The pitch: If a horrible illness afflicts him or her, the policy will provide you with a lump sum to put toward burial costs or unpaid medical bills. A number of firms, including Gerber Life Insurance, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and State Farm Insurance, offer a version of life insurance for babies.

In addition, many policies for adults allow policyholders to buy a rider that covers all the children in a family. Premiums average $213 a year, according to Mr. Hunter.

But the chances of a child dying are slim—only one in 3,000 children perish each year—meaning you are likely shelling out cash needlessly, says Jim , an insurance actuary in Concord, N.H.

Instead of getting a juvenile life-insurance plan, consider increasing your own coverage, suggests Consumer Federation of America’s Mr. Hunter. “If the primary breadwinner dies, the financial consequences are far more severe, and there is a greater likelihood of that happening,” he says.

Another supposed perk: The plans allow parents to get a head start on saving money for their children. Typically companies promise to set aside a portion of premiums that kids can tap into once they reach age 18. But the savings often don’t materialize, Ms. Schmitz says, since they tend to accumulate only a couple thousand dollars of savings over the lifetime of the plan.

You can produce better long-term savings for your kids by investing money directly into a 529 college-savings plan, Mr. Hunt says. Such an account allows you to accumulate college savings without taxing investment earnings.

Tuition-Protection Insurance

Another insurance policy aimed specifically at parents: tuition-protection insurance. The biggest player in this niche is A.W.G. Dewar, owned by OneBeacon Insurance Group. The insurer offers policies at 200 U.S. colleges and universities as well as 1,300 primary and secondary schools.

The policies typically allow you to get back some tuition money if your child gets sick, has to withdraw from school or gets injured—but not if Junior fails to meet academic standards.

It is perfectly understandable why parents, forking over thousands of dollars a year in tuition, would want some guarantee, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, an independent college-planning website. He points out that tuition at California’s public colleges rose by at least 20% this fall, for example.

Costs vary by school and provider. Parents of undergraduate students at Duke University in Durham, N.C., for example, pay $257 per academic year for insurance through Dewar, while tuition insurance for students at Barnard College in New York costs $602 a year.

Still, he says, the insurance isn’t always a good deal. Most colleges already offer some kind of refund if a student drops out because of a medical condition. What’s more, the policies set serious restrictions; some won’t refund tuition if the withdrawal is due to mental health or if a student simply drops out because of disinterest or other factors.

“While colleges have refund policies, their rate of reimbursement declines with each passing week and typically expires six weeks into the semester,” says Dana Tufts, Dewar’s president.

Identity-Theft Insurance

In June, Citigroup disclosed that a hacking attack had breached its computer systems, potentially affecting about 200,000 customer accounts—the latest in a string of cyberattacks on financial institutions. Such attacks have made consumers more skittish, says Jean Salvatore, a spokeswoman at the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit supported by the insurance industry.

A wide range of companies are offering some form of insurance against identity theft, particularly credit-card theft. Some include credit monitoring and will send alerts if a new account is opened under your name or there are sudden moves in account balances. Some even offer to cover any expenses fraudulently charged to credit cards. Other companies offer broader coverage, such as cash to cover expenses associated with identity theft.

But such coverage is repetitive, say financial planners, because credit cards already come with built in identity-theft protection. Most cardholders aren’t responsible for any unauthorized or fraudulent charges on a card and issuers provide free credit-monitoring tools, which render the extra coverage unnecessary.

In addition, some firms have come under fire for overstating the effectiveness of their products. Last year, LifeLock, which offers identity-theft protection starting at $10 a month, agreed to pay $11 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $1 million to 35 state attorneys general to settle charges that the company made false claims to pitch its services.

“The Federal Trade Commission thought that we were overstating the value of our product,” says Todd Davis, LifeLock’s chief executive. “But they weren’t criticizing our business practices.”

Payment-Protection Insurance

This coverage is offered by credit-card issuers. The promise: If you lose your job or get sick, the issuer will waive finance charges and minimum payments. The price of the insurance ranges from 85 cents to $1.35 a month for every $100 of the card’s balance, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“The policies simply aren’t worth it, especially because they often have undisclosed hurdles to actually getting that coverage,” says Chi Chi Wu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.

There isn’t hard data tracking exactly how many issuers are offering this service, but analysts say banks have started to offer it in larger numbers, in part to recoup revenue lost from the series of law changes beginning with the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. The law restricted certain controversial billing practices and siphoned fee revenue, according to Josh Frank, a senior researcher at the Boston-based Center for Responsible Lending. Add-ons such as payment-protection insurance help lenders offset revenue losses, he says.

The nation’s nine largest card issuers received $2.4 billion in fees for debt-protection products in 2009, but paid out only $518 million in benefits to consumers—a low payout ratio, according to the GAO.

Some credit-card companies are pushing the plan to cardholders without disclosing its restrictions. Ronald Washington, a military veteran who lives in the Bronx, N.Y., says he purchased payment-protection insurance from Discover Financial Services, assuming the Riverwoods, Ill., company would make his credit-card payments if his pre-existing injury prevented him from working. He says he discovered months later that he never qualified for the insurance because he already was injured when he applied.

“I was never told that at all,” Mr. Washington says. “Why would they take my money if I didn’t qualify anyway?”

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is reviewing Discover’s fee-based-product-marketing practices, including its payment-protection plan, according to a July filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson also filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that it aggressively and deceptively signed up customers for the program. The lawsuit is pending.

Leslie Sutton, a spokeswoman for Discover, declined to comment on Mr. Washington’s complaint, but said the company “seeks to maintain long-term relationships with our cardmembers and has enjoyed the highest level of customer loyalty among leading credit-card brands for 15 years.” In response to concerns raised by the FDIC and the Minnesota attorney general, Ms. Sutton says, “We believe our current practices address concerns.”

Cancer and Critical-Illness Insurance

Insurers offer two types of policies designed to supplement existing health-insurance coverage: cancer policies and those that cover a broader range of critical illnesses. The problem: Many are riddled with exclusions and don’t cover the most common form of the illnesses they purport to address, says Anthony Wright, who heads Health Access, an advocacy group in Sacramento, Calif.

For instance, he says, some cancer-insurance plans exclude skin cancer entirely, while others won’t cover basal-cell skin cancer, the most common kind.

The plans range in cost, with premiums between $200 and $350 a year for healthy people, according to Cheryl Parcham, who analyzes private-market insurance plans for Families USA, a Washington-based health-advocacy organization. In addition, some of the policies might not be hefty enough to cover expenses if a policyholder gets sick, she says.

David Beach, a 42-year-old small-business owner, bought a cancer-protection rider along with a health-insurance policy from Mid-West National Life Insurance, a unit of HealthMarkets in North Richland Hills, Texas. The policy didn’t cover the treatment he needed in January for a sarcoma in his left thigh—so he bought a more robust health-insurance policy that covered his care. Mid-West National declined to comment.

Some critical-illness plans don’t cover common illnesses such as cancer, or set strict limits on the number of illnesses they do cover. Take Aflac‘s Lump Sum Critical Illness Insurance. The Columbus, Ga., company’s plan covers only one illness within a 180-day period. The limitations are in place to keep costs down and “to find a balancing point” between costs and coverage, says Tom Morey, Aflac’s vice president of product development.

Before purchasing one of these policies, look to see when the benefits expire. Unum Group‘s critical-illness policy pays only about half of its benefits if a policyholder gets sick after they turn 70.

“The 50% payout of benefits after the age of 70 is prevalent in the industry and enables insurance companies to keep this valuable coverage highly affordable,” says Mary Clarke Guenther, an Unum Group spokeswoman, adding that Unum does offer plans without the benefit reduction.

Divorce Insurance

One firm is offering protection plans in case “happily ever after” doesn’t pan out. Roughly 22% of women and 21% of men over the age of 15 have been divorced, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

SafeGuard Guaranty, a firm based in Bernersville, N.C., rolled out a divorce-insurance program called WedLock last year. The idea: For $15.99 a month, you can secure $1,250 in coverage, which can be used to cover the costs of divorce or any other expenses. The only problem is that couples have to wait four years before they can cash in the policies. That means if you get divorced before your fourth anniversary, you don’t get the benefit of any of the premiums.

SafeGuard CEO John Logan says the four-year restriction is meant “to protect ourselves against people who would game the system,” and that policyholders can buy a rider that ensures their premiums are refunded if they divorce before the policy kicks in.

Mr. Daily, the New York-based insurance consultant, says divorce insurance is unnecessary since you could just set aside money into a general emergency fund. Mark Baer, a divorce lawyer in Los Angeles, says he always advises his clients against buying this kind of insurance. “It’s just throwing money into a black hole,” he says.

What to Buy

In addition to health insurance, some other types of coverage are indispensable. Among them:

• Term life insurance. This type of life insurance—which provides a death benefit for a specific period, such as 10 to 20 years, with premiums generally set at a flat rate—is the best bet for most people, say independent insurance consultants. “Permanent life” insurance, by contrast, combines a death benefit with a savings account, and carries steep commissions. Unless you are using the policy to build tax-deferred savings, there are few real benefits.

• Disability insurance. It often is a good deal, say financial advisers, because it pays a portion of your salary, unlike other illness-related insurance that offers a lump sum.

Check whether the plan will cover just a percentage of your salary or will factor in payments based on total income, including commissions and bonuses. And look for a plan that will provide benefits if you can no longer perform your current job; some plans will prevent you from receiving benefits if you are still able to do a comparable job. Finally, check whether there are ceilings on payments for certain conditions, such as mental-health illnesses.

• Umbrella liability coverage. These policies help protect your assets from seizure if you are sued, and are well-suited for people who have accumulated assets, like a home, and work in professions vulnerable to lawsuits, such as medicine.

Basic policies cover only a portion of your total assets and often skimp on coverage for brokerage accounts, cars and retirement accounts. If you consolidate your insurance accounts by getting car and home insurance from a single insurance firm, you can save on premiums for umbrella liability coverage, too. But if you are renting, and don’t own your home, you can skip the coverage.

• Earthquake and flood insurance. Most homeowner’s policies don’t cover earthquake and flood damage. If you live in an area prone to natural disasters, it is worth forking over extra to get protection.

The vast majority of flood-insurance policies are offered through the National Flood Insurance Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The insurance covers water damage to homes from events ranging from tsunamis to mudslides, and costs, on average, around $570 a year, though premiums are higher in high-risk zones. You can get more information at FloodSmart.gov.

Some property insurers sell earthquake insurance as an extra in a standard homeowner’s policy or separately. Deductibles range from 2% to 20% of the insured value of the home, says Mr. Simmonds, the independent insurance consultant.

A recent national survey determined that nearly 2.5 million households have lost their homeowners coverage in the past 24 months, and another 51 million households (about 42% of all American households) experienced homeowners insurance rate increases, with some as high as 25% or more. To help avoid these troublesome situations, here is a link to some helpful tips from Crescenta Valley Insurance on just how to save money on homeowners insurance rates.

The main idea is to remain vigilent, and to establish an on-going relationship with your insurance agent. They could provide a number of solutions to climbing homeowners insurance rates. Remember, they’re working for you, so be sure to ask them to help you save money where you can. You may be pleasantly surprised how much you can save simply by having your auto insurance AND homeowners insurance with the same company.

If you’re looking for a way to lose weight without undergoing gastric surgery, you may want to consider an intra gastric balloon.

Gastric ballooning is a common procedure in Europe to help people lose weight. Having a gastric balloon inserted is not only an incision-free procedure, but it is reversible as well. The balloon is inserted into the stomach through the mouth and then filled with liquid. It sits in the stomach and decreases the appetite because it occupies approximately one-third of the stomach cavity, in addition to slowing down stomach emptying.

Click here to find out if gastric ballooning is for you.

A highly restricted, low-calorie diet prompts the body to remove the fat that is clogging the pancreas and preventing it from making insulin.

According to Roy Taylor, the Newcastle University professor who headed the project, “To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet. This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition.”

Read the entire story: Low Calorie Diet Can Cure Type 2 Diabetes

I’ve always looked at it as a way for the car rental agency to make tons of money ’cause hardly anybody ever damages the rental car (or do they?), and MY car insurance already covers me for any damage.

Oh really?

Here is an article that’ll convince you to buy that rental car insurance. If not for what it can do to protect you should you damage that rental, but just for peace of mind of not having to go through all the hassle. It really is cheap auto insurance.

Read “Ten Reasons To Purchase the Rental Car Insurance” by Rick Dinger at Crescenta Valley Insurance.

Let me know if his article convinced you to buy that annoying rental car insurance- it sure convinced me.

More than 70% of those college-bound students who rent while in school typically are under-insured for their personal property- things like computers, iPods, stereo equipment, etc. Plus, they usually don’t think about getting liability insurance should someone get hurt while in their apartment. And regarding health insurance, one in seven students carries no kndividual health insurance.

Most college-bound students and their parents erroneously assume that insurance is too expensive, but it is actually quite affordable. For example, consider a standard renters insurance policy. Personal property coverage of $15,000 and $100,000 in liability coverage costs $100 to $150 annually.

Parents and college students should seek the advise of a professional insurance agent for auto, health and renters insurance.

Major Advances In Diabetic Supplies Help Patients Manage Their Diabetes

Diabetes research has led to such major advances as faster acting and longer acting insulin, oral diabetic agents, blood glucose meters and insulin pumps to help patients manage their diabetes.

Mini Pharmacy Leads The Way In Diabetes Care

Mini Pharmacy has been leading the way in diabetes care and providing supplies for the past 30 years. As a family owned and operated company, Mini Pharmacy is one of the largest mail order diabetes companies in California. A few of Mini Pharmacy’s employees have been with the company from the very beginning. R. Cervantes just recently celebrated his 23rd anniversary as a driver for Mini Pharmacy as well as general manager M. Jimenez’s 20th anniversary. F. Salazar has been with Mini Pharmacy since its inception in 1980 and recently celebrated his 27th anniversary. Mini Pharmacy appreciates and commends their loyalty and dedication to the company and looks forward to many more years with them as a part of the Mini Pharmacy family.

Mini Pharmacy offers competitive rates on diabetes supplies, free next day delivery and a friendly staff and a family that will always go above and beyond when the need arises. Know when you have Mini Pharmacy as your diabetes supply company you have a family. Check our diabetic supplies website: http://www.diabetic-supplies-online.com; give us a call or enroll today for free.

It’s enough to make your head spin. With all these choices for social media marketing, how’s a person to know which works best? Or where to start?

Here a blog post on Can You Find Me Now that describes ways you can use social media marketing to improve your business.

With the Yellow Pages becoming increasingly irrelevant, more and more people are turning to social media marketing to promote their product and/or service. Using videos on YouTube, podcasts on iTunes, tweets on Twitter, and wall posts on FaceBook are becoming the marketing methods of 2011.

If you’re looking to increase your Internet Marketing exposure, check out this Frank Buddenbrock blog on using the various Social Media platforms to reach your insatiable audience.