Markets Wired

With all the sources of health information available – many of them online – it can be tough to tell fact from fiction, or useful products and services from those that don’t work or aren’t safe.

To help provide reliable sources of health information to seniors and their family members, caregivers, and friends, the Federal Trade Commission has developed a new booklet and Web site. Who Cares: Sources of Information About Health Care Products and Services, online at www.ftc.gov/whocares, urges older consumers to discuss their health-related decisions with doctors and other trusted health care providers. It also helps them:

• find links to agencies and organizations that provide reliable information about generic drugs, hormone therapy, caregiving, surgery to improve vision, alternative medicine, hearing aids, Medicare fraud, and medical ID theft;
• learn how to spot misleading and deceptive claims; and
• find out who they can contact to ask questions, enlist help, or raise a concern about a health product or service that isn’t living up to its promise.

Copies of the Who Cares booklet can be ordered from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP. For bulk orders of the booklet, go to www.ftc.gov/bulkorder.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,500 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

(FYI Who Cares)