Then help came.
Penaflor made it to a hospital in the town of Ukriah on the edge of the forest, where his family surrounded his bed. Doctors checked him over and released him. He is back home, his son Jeremy told CNN.
“He’s good. He’s hanging in there. He looks like nothing changed except he grew a beard.”
Lost Flank the deer on two sides; no matter where it runs, your buddy or you are pretty sure to bag it.
It’s a common hunting strategy. But it got Penaflor separated from his hunting partner on September 24.
They had split up at their base camp, walking over separate ridges, and were going to meet up down the path a few hours later for lunch. Penaflor never showed.
A day later, his hunting buddy reported him missing to the Mendocino County sheriff, who sent out a search party a day later assembled from nearly two dozen country and state law enforcement offices.
After scouring the mountain range on foot and with rescue dogs, and in the air for four days, they found no clues leading to Penaflor.
A hefty storm blew in, and they suspended the search.
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The accident
Penaflor had walked out into the woods much farther than he had planned, his son said.
He slipped on a steep slope and hit his head. It knocked him out cold, and he has no idea for how long.
He still had his hunting rifle, but he told his son that he didn’t have the strength to hunt a deer. “He told me it was mainly in survival mode. He was trying to save energy,” the son said.
Instead, Penaflor focused on small game, foraged for algae in a stream and drank water from a creek. To stay dry, he crouched under a fallen tree, and to keep warm, he made a fire and packed dry leaves and grass around his body.
He never stopped trying, and his family did not give up hope. “We knew he was out there,” said Jeremy Penaflor.
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The rescue
The search party went out again Saturday to look for the 72-year-old, and this time the group was about half the size of the original one. But someone beat them to Penaflor.
A hunter called the sheriff’s office in the morning, saying he and his large group of friends could hear a man crying for help from down in a valley.
The cell phone connection dropped out again and again, before deputies could note his location, the sherriff’s office said. They instructed the hunter to call 911, and the operator locked in on his GPS coordinates.
Penaflor’s cries led the hunting party to him. They cut poles from trees and affixed their coats to them to fashion a makeshift stretcher to carry him out.
Rescuers met up with the group hours later, as they heaved him up a steep hill. They called a helicopter to ferry him to Ukiah Valley Medical Center.
Hugs and tears
When his family saw him, no one spoke, Jeremy Penaflor said. “Just hugs. And we were in tears.”
He released a photograph to the media, showing his father in a hospital bed, smiling and giving a thumbs-up.
No more hunting for now, the son said.
“If he decides to hunt in a couple of years, that’s fine. But we joked around and said let’s make it a camping trip.”
If he goes out again, his son wants to be with him.
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CNN’s Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
Use your retirement income wisely, find out if you qualify for medicare discounts.
It can be difficult to know whether or not you have proper coverage, but we can help! It’s our passion to provide peace of mind and ensure that you are well informed of your options and receive the best possible rates. Please feel free to call us at anytime, even if it’s just to chat.
Medicare Supplement Plan A is also referred to as Medigap Plan A. This plan is sometimes overlooked because it has fewer benefits than other Medigap insurance plans.
What does Medicare Plan A cover though? It still covers the most important benefit, which is the 20% of outpatient medical care that Medicare doesn’t cover.
Make no mistake. Medicare Plan A pays this, so it is still a very good plan.
Medicare Supplement Plan B, also called Medigap Plan B, offers the same benefits as Plan A. In addition, it will also pay your Part A hospital deductible for you. This is a significant benefit as the deductible in 2017 is $1,316, and tends to go up slightly each year. Having Medigap Plan B means that you will never have to worry about that deductible going up.
Your hospital deductible is a per-incident deductible, not an annual one, so this is an important benefit. Medicare Plan B will pay the deductible even if you incur it more than once in the same year.
Medicare Supplement Plan C is a policy which covers nearly all of the Medicare gaps that you would usually be required to pay. The only exception is the Part B excess charges.
Excess charges are surcharges that your doctor can charge above and beyond what Medicare will reimburse. They are limited to 15% beyond what Medicare pays. Many doctors do not charge excess charges, but occasionally they do. If this concerns you, the Medigap Plan F or G might be a better choice for you than Medicare Plan C. Those two plans cover excess charges, so you won’t have to worry about asking.
Medicare Supplement Plan D is one of the ten Medigap options you can purchase to supplement your Original Medicare benefits. (It is not to be confused with PART D, which is for prescription drugs. You can read about Part D drug policies here.)
A Medigap Plan D policy covers most of the gaps in Medicare for you, with the exception of the Part B deductible and also any excess charges. An excess charge is an additional amount you will pay if a provider charges more than the Medicare allowed amount. You will pay out of pocket for these two minor items if you purchase a Medicare Plan D. However, the policy does cover all of the most important things, like the 20% of outpatient services that you would otherwise owe.
It’s important to compare pricing between Medigap Plan D and Plans F or G, which have richer benefits. This will help you determine if the savings is worth the additional financial exposure to you. Some people would rather pay more for their supplement if they know that all the gaps will be covered. Others don’t mind a little cost-sharing to get lower premiums.
A Medigap plan, or Medicare Supplement, pays after Medicare to help cover your deductibles, copays, and coinsurance that you would otherwise be responsible for. Medigap plans do not replace your Medicare Part B. You must be enrolled in both Part A and Part B first, then you are eligible to enroll in Medicare supplement Plan F.
When you add a Medicare Supplement Plan F or G to your Original Medicare benefits, your coverage will be quite comprehensive. By definition, Medigap Plan F is the Medicare supplement with the most benefits.
Did you know that Medicare Supplement Plan G is the second most popular Medicare supplement (next to Plan F) with our Baby Boomer clients? Today we’re going to tell you why. Everyone has heard of Plan F, but what is Medicare Supplement Plan G? What does Plan G cover?
Medicare Plan G coverage is very similar to Plan F. It offers great value for beneficiaries who are willing to pay a small annual deductible. After that, Plan G provides full coverage for all of the gaps in Medicare. It pays for your hospital deductible, copays and coinsurance. It also covers the 20% that Part B does’t cover.
Medicare Supplement Plan K offers you the same basic benefits as other supplements, but with lower premiums. For example, this plan will still cover preventive care services and give you an extra year in the hospital. However, you split the cost-sharing with the insurance carrier on certain items like the Part A deductible. You also agree to pay the Part B deductible and any excess charges.
Medicare Plan K also includes a cap on your spending called an out-of-pocket maximum. For instance, let’s say you have a year with a lot of medical treatments. If your out-of-pocket spending reaches the maximum limit, then your Medigap K policy will kick in to pay all of the rest for that year.
Medicare Supplement Plan L policy also includes a cap on your expenses. This is referred to as your out-of-pocket limit or maximum. Medicare sets this limit annually, and in 2018, the limit for Plan L is $2,620. This means that if in any one calendar year your spending reaches $2,480 in Medicare-approved covered expenses, then the Medigap insurance carrier pays the rest. The cap makes it much easier to agree to share in 25% of the costs on the items listed because you know that even if a year of bad health occurs, you won’t have more exposure than the maximum cap figure.
Medicare Supplement Plan M is one of the new supplements created by the Medicare Modernization Act. It first hit the Medicare insurance market in the summer of 2010. (Sometimes we hear people call it Medicare Part M or Medigap Part M, but the correct term is Plan M.)
Medicare Plan M provides the same basic benefits as other supplements. However, it has a slightly reduced monthly premium in exchange for your willingness to pay half of your hospital deductible and all of your annual outpatient deductible. By sharing in these deductibles as well as excess charges, you get the benefit of reduced premiums.
Plan M could be a good fit for someone who doesn’t expect to visit the hospital often and feels he can afford the occasional cost-sharing. However, it’s important to have a licensed agent who specializes in Medicare supplements to help you. He or she will evaluate the differences in premiums and make sure that the savings are worth the risk of some expenses.
Medicare Supplement Plan N has been popular since it was first introduced in 2010. Also called Medigap Plan N, this option was created for consumers who like the idea of paying a lower premium in exchange for taking on a small annual deductible and some copays.
All Medicare supplement Plan N policies are the same, no matter which insurance company you choose. You can find Plan N available in many states from various well-know insurance companies.
In 2015, AHIP reported that Plan N enrollment grew by 33% between 2013 – 2014.
(You will find that sometimes people refer to Plan N as Part N, but the proper term is Plan N. Medicare itself has Parts, but when you are referring to supplemental insurance, use the word Plans.)