California motorists must use a hands-free device for their cell phones while driving. It's the law, but drivers still have questions. Here are a few that made their way to The Bee.
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Lavon Roach asked via e-mail: "Can passengers in the car use a cell phone? Is this law for everyone in the car or just the driver?"
Just the driver, Lavon. We called California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler for the answer.
"Absolutely. They're not driving," Kohler said. "If you're behind the wheel, don't use it. That's the easiest way to remember."
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William D. Knight has looked for a headset for Samsung's Jitterbug cell phone with no luck.
"I bought one of the phones for baby boomers – the Jitterbug phone. I have searched high and low for a headset for this Samsung SPH-A120 phone. The Jitterbug Web site no longer lists them."
We went to the Jitterbug Web site, www.jitterbug.com, and called customer service at (800) 918-8543.
After a brief wait, a real person answered the phone. She said William would have to wait. A new shipment of headsets won't arrive until July 15. No, they won't take pre-orders.
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Nola Nemeth-Odens has a medical condition that makes wearing earbuds painful. She's concerned that a sun visor-mounted speakerphone won't work well enough for her needs and asked if her insurance might cover a procedure to relieve the condition and allow her to use a headset.
"I have a large mole in each ear, and each is located in the path of an earpiece. Whenever I hold a telephone to my ear, it causes significant irritation, generating headaches and earaches that can last for hours. In the past, I have tolerated the irritation because to remove the moles was deemed a "cosmetic" procedure, and therefore not covered under our Blue Cross/ Blue Shield of Minnesota policy. If my cell phone's hands-free speakerphone isn't adequate for conversation, and I can't tolerate ear buds because of the moles, will the new cell phone law render my mole removal as "medically necessary"?
We talked with Blue Shield of California. They weren't optimistic. "We wouldn't cover it because there are other hands-free technologies that don't require her to have her moles removed. Using a cell phone is not medically necessary in a car."
Well, Nola did a little digging of her own. She said her provider told her that coverage was dependent on the service code submitted by the physician. She said she plans to talk with her dermatologist to find how he would file the claim with her insurer and if she will move forward with a procedure. Stay tuned.
