• Your webmaster's Suggested Website List.
• AFT makes it easy to contact your representatives.
• Driving directions and other information about restaurants in the Clearwater area. Great help for making it easy to drive to our restaurant-meeting locations.

Our health insurance and other benefits

1. Empire Plan Participating Provider Directory for N.Y. State Health Insurance Program
2. Empire Plan Participating Labs -- as of January 1, 2007, no longer Quest.
   • See information about United Health Care's switch to LabCorp. In pdf format.
   • To locate a LabCorp lab closest to you -- go to the bottom of the LapCorp page to click on the clink-link provided in the sentence "To locate the Patient Service Center closest to you ...."
   • Can also get information on an authorized United Health Care lab here.
3. Empire Plan pharmaceutical program. Need information on drug benefits? MEDCO is now handling the prescription benefits for the Empire plan.You'll need a password and your email address to get into this site. To get a password, be prepared to have available your Empire Plan ID card, and then call MEDCO at 800-922-1557. For a list of approved medications as of January 1, 2009.To get prescription information by phone, call The Empire Plan toll free at 1-877-7-NYSHIP (1-877-769-7447). 3/19/09
4. MAP. Here you can sign up with NYSUT to receive email messages updating you on benefits available to NYSUT members.
5. Medicare. Official government site for people with Medicare. If you are over 65, eligible for Medicare and without a "credible plan" or letters from former employers for drug benefits, you may find it helpful to go to www.medicare.gov for guidance. You can also get information by calling Medicare at 1-800-medicare. You may be especially interested in Frequently Asked Questions FAQ. Note there are several answer pages, and that you have to click the right triangle to go to the next page. Look for this graphic at the middle right side of the FAQ page.
   
• Medicare providers -- find out the physicians in your area that are medicare providers.
6. New York State Health Insurance Program for State and Local Government for retired enrollees
7. NYSUT membership benefits.
8. NYSUT retiree services. Includes 61 page booklet on NYSUT Wellness and Healthcare Directory.
9. Social Services through NYSUT. A NYSUT member, including retirees, can get confidential and free help with personal or family problems. You can use the website or call 800-342-9810, ext. 6202. 4/1/09
10. OptumHealth. For information on finding network providers for Empire Plan United Health Care mental health care. You will need an access code. Go to this site to get the access code or call Optum Health 1-866-894-5795. Or to use a phone number to see if a mental health professional is an OptumHealth network provider, call 1-866-763-0464. 4/8/09
11. United Health Care. If you are a retired New York State teacher having the Empire plan administered by United Health Care, here you can find out information about your coverage, including the names of network physicians. You can also chat online with a nurse to get guidance about your medical concerns. Be prepared to register for an ID and password before you can access much of the information available. You can also find out network providers here without using an ID and password.

Health information in general

1. American Medical Association. Look up your physician’s credentials. Also helpful in locating a specialist in your area.
2. Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration
3. Florida's Health Information Link
4. Mayo Clinic
5. Medicare -- unlike the Medicare link at the top of this page, this link takes you to special information applicable to each state.
6. Medlineplus Health Information
7. National Institutes of Health
8. WebMD Health.

Making your views known to your political representatives and the media

1. Our union NYSUT makes it easy for us to identify our political representatives, current issue of concern to us, and to fax them our views. You can fax your views from this site even though you are not using a fax machine. This NYSUT site allows you to send faxes from your computer as easily as you would be able to send email messages. 6/21/08
2. Send email message to New York State Governor Governor David A. Paterson.
3. AARP makes it easy to express your views on political issues. Be prepared to register with AARP by giving them your name, address and email address. When I chose to write my congressman about giving the Federal government the right to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies involved in Medicare's new prescription plan, AARP gave me a form letter than I could easily modify and send off from the AARP site to Congressman Gus Bilirakis 1/8/06
4. Finding the e-mail addresses of members of the U.S. House of Representatives
5. Congressional Org. Wealth of political information including ways to contact easily our political leaders. If you reside at zip code 34684 in Palm Harbor, Florida, from this site you can identify and email all your political representatives, including the Presidents, senators and congressman.
6. Another source for contacting U.S. Senators.
7. Contacting U.S. President Barack Obama.
8. Governor Charlie Crist of Florida. charlie.crist@myflorida.com The Governor's website. See what Governor has to say about insurance and property tax reform.
9. Contacting Florida State legislators and other Florida political officials
10. Official State site of the Florida State Legislature. Here you can look up information on a bill if you have its number.
11. To use the following chart (Your Political Voice Portal), you only need to put in the first five numbers of your zip code in the first entry box, leaving the second box blank. My complete zip code, for example, is 34684-2236, but when I used just 34684 in the first entry box and left the second blank, I got just the information I needed. Be sure to click on . The new browser window that opens up will probably only take up a fraction of your screen. To make it take up your full screen for easier viewing, click on the maximize button at the top of the right hand corner of your screen. The maximize button looks like the one bordered here in red.
    If you decide to return to this links page and try another Political Voice Portal search, be sure to first click on your browser's Refresh or Reload button before making a new search so that your previous search choice will be removed from your computer's memory. RG 2/4/02

Your Political Voice Portal

Find Elected Officials Enter ZIP Code: or Search by State See Issues & Action Select An Issue Area: Contact The Media Enter ZIP Code: or Search by State

1. Deep Web Searches.Most of the millions of websites on the Internet are not picked up by the popular search tools as Google and Yahoo. But you can go beyond these search tools and get to the Deep Web -- where you can find valuable information that the typical computer user could never find with typical search engines.
2. Gordon's resources for students taking a basic computer course including the Internet.
3. Netiquette. Good manners when sending email messages. It's considered poor etiquette to write in all capitals, reveal private email addresses when sending a message to many people at once, omit including a subject -- and lots more. Find out how to come across as a sophisticated computer user. Be sure to look at lesson two, also.
4. Palm Harbor Library calendar listing computer classes.
5. Protecting yourself from Internet misinformation, hoaxes, myths.
6. Setting up a free e-mail account so that you can access your e-mail while traveling.
7. St. Petersburg College. Computer Courses for Seniors
8. Suggested Web site List. Hundreds of interesting sites to select just by clicking on a link. Including newspapers from around the world.
9. Tips on using your computer. From PC Magazine.
10. Using addresses and links to get Web sites.
11. Using search engines to help you find information on the Internet.

1. AFT blog. AFT discusses the challenges of the No Child Left Behind ACT.
2. AFT Plus. Benefits for teachers belonging to AFT. (NYSUT is affiliated with AFT -- so if you are a NYSUT member, you also belong to AFT.)
3. AllYouCanRead.Com. Links to thousands of newspapers and magazines from around the world.
4. American Federation of Teachers main website.
5. Both home and cell phone users can sign up for the Do Not Call List to block a telemarketer from calling them on their cell phones.
6. Driving directions to our meetings. Try Mapquest or Maps-on-Us. If you are an AAA member, be sure to check out driving directions on the AAA site. Click on the blue Go to Internet Triptik button. Be prepared to give your membership number.
7. Elder Web -- links to subjects of interest to seniors
8. Elderhostel
9. Fight Fraud in Florida. Includes Scam Alert, and how to file a complaint.
10. Hurricanes. How we can prepare.
11. Florida's Department of Elder Affairs. This Florida State sponsored website offers valuable advice to seniors including such topics as how to report elder abuse, end of life choices, updates on State legislature affecting the elderly.
12. Florida's Public Library System. If you have a library card from any library in the state of Florida, you can use the barcode number on your card to get access to all kinds of information not available to the general public by using a search engine like Google or Yahoo.
13. Hoaxes, frauds. This site will help you check out all kinds of deception. Watch out especially for chain letters requesting that you forward the message to all your friends. Also check out Hoaxbusters.
14. Identity theft. Hackers can even send out messages that appear to be coming from your email address to fool your friends, relatives and associates.
15. National Council on Aging. Helps determine what benefits are available for people over 60.
16. New York State Teachers' Retirement System Click the link Secure Area for a summary of System membership information such as original benefit, previous colas, deductions, retirement date, tier. First time you use this secure area, you must register to get a password.
17. New York State United Teachers
18. NYSUT retirees' benefit programs
19. Office of the New York State Comptroller. Includes information on state and local retirement systems.
20. Pension reduction in 1915. In 1915, when New York City was in financial difficulties, retired teachers faced the prospect of a 42 percent reduction in their pension. You'll need Adobe on your computer to read this New York Times article published September 19, 1915.
21. Pensions. If you are a retired New York State teacher or administrator, anyone knowing about this site can find out what your retirement pension is. Just insert the name of the teacher or administrator in the search slot at the top right hand side of the screen, under NYS Teacher Retirement System. 5/16/09
22. Retirement Spots -- Help in choosing the best place to retire to.
23. RTC website -- what this site looked like at various dates since December 28, 2001.
24. Ruth Eckerd Hall
25. Searching for a long lost friend or relative. Try The Ultimates. Click the link on White Pages. More sources for searching for people or businesses.
26. Senior Victim Advocate Program.Help for "victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, burglary, assault and battery, victims of financial exploitation, fraud or economic crime." A program sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging. Includes Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) of Pasco-Pinellas, Inc. which "has been designated to serve as one of three Aging and Disability Resource Centers in the State of Florida as of August 1, 2005."
27. Social Security Administration
28. Speaker-sources for our meetings.
29. St. Petersburg College Information on its new Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. on its Tarpon Springs campus.
30. Telemarketers annoying you by their unwelcomed calls on your home phone and even on your cell phone? Register your home and cell phone numbers on a National Do Not Call Registry to put telemarketers on notice that you do not want their unsolicited phone calls. Also, check out Federal Trade Commission's site where you can also register your phone numbers. This site, by the way, makes this statement: "You may have received an email telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database; however, that is not the case. Federal Communications Commission regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers." Questions and Answers about the Do Not Call Registry.
31. U.S. Department of Homeland Security provides information especially geared to seniors.