At the hearings, many Committee Members were still getting up to speed on the structural and procedural aspects of the IPAB. The IPAB, which will be made up of 15 "experts" appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, will begin issuing recommendations to Congress in 2015 if Medicare spending exceeds the targets established by the Affordable Care Act. Those recommendations will be reviewed on a "fast-track" basis, and, if Congress fails to act quickly, HHS will be forced to implement them. .Regrettably, this uncertainty persists during the on-going deficit reduction discussions. Those who received services paid for by Medicare will not be affected by the automatic budget cuts due to the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reach a compromise. Nevertheless, I am concerned that providers are not also shielded from those cuts. That is why I am co-sponsoring H.R. 3519, legislation to protect Medicare providers from the 2 percent cuts that were part of the Budget Control Act of 2011. .'It´s not clear why the administration hasn't made a bigger push to line up votes to get a bill through the Senate and a deal with Congress, given strong public support to lower drug costs,' said Tricia Neuman, a Medicare expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. .At Wednesday's hearing, many lawmakers seemed to agree that Congress should begin working seriously towards a long-term plan, but it was clear that there is no consensus on what that plan should look like. One member of the committee, Senator Bob Corker (TN), said he would support a plan similar to the Simpson-Bowles proposal of 2010 that would increase Social Security's age of eligibility and adopt the "chained" CPI, among other things. .Their attention will now turn to other important issues, and TSCL will be in the forefront of efforts to make sure the continued viability of Social Security and Medicare are on the top of the lists, as well as the need to lower the costs of prescription drugs. .Computed tomography or CT scans are diagnostic tests that are covered by Medicare when medically necessary and ordered by your healthcare provider. Medicare most typically covers the tests under Part B when you are an outpatient, or the tests would be covered by Part A if you receive the CT scan as an inpatient during a hospital stay. .Although immigration law forbids work without authorization, immigrants do find jobs, and the majority of employers report their earnings to SSA. Each year SSA receives hundreds of millions of W-2s. When the name and Social Security number (SSN) do not match SSA's records, the W-2 is held in the Earnings Suspense File (ESF). Recent data indicates that in recent years the ESF is growing at an unprecedented pace and the cumulative wages represented is now 5 billion. These wages can later be reinstated to valid Social Security numbers when immigrants gain work authorization. Because earnings are used to determine both the number of quarters of coverage worked for insured status, and the initial retirement benefit, this poses a substantial liability to the Social Security Trust Fund and would worsen its solvency. .One can't write about Medicare as I do without learning that Medicare has requirements for everything. Lots of requirements.. Medicare Starts Mailing New Cards In April — Beware Of Scams! Start watching the mail for your new Medicare card. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will start mailing the cards this month and plans to replace all existing Medicare cards over the next year — by April of 2019. .Last May the House of Representatives passed a second coronavirus-related economic stimulus bill that addressed the on-going economic and medical hardships resulting from the pandemic. The legislation, which passed the House, included over trillion in relief for state and local governments, around 0 billion in hazard pay for essential workers, and billion for coronavirus testing and contact tracing.