Americans 65 and Older See Largest Increase in Poverty .Your Initial Enrollment Period starts three months prior to turning age 65, includes the month you turn 65, and ends 3 months after you turn 6Advisor editor Mary Johnson, who has helped dozens of friends and neighbors with their Medicare, highly recommends starting the Medicare enrollment process 3 months before you turn 65, in order to have your new coverage become effective in the month you turn 6Enrolling in Medicare is done online through the Social Security website at www.SocialSecurity.gov. Look for the box that says, "Enroll in Medicare". Or you can get assistance to help you with this. .What you can do: Contact your Members of Congress and tell them to enact legislation that would ensure you get an emergency COLA in 202Let's tell our Members of Congress that you are asking to receive the 2.5% COLA which was already estimated in the January 2020 Social Security budget baseline by the Congressional Budget Office. You can send an email to your Congressman at www . .The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the rule would be mandatory and will focus on 50 single source drugs and biologic drugs that comprise the largest majority of Medicare Part B drug spending. .This week, one new cosponsor – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) – signed on to Rep. Grace Meng's (NY-6) Notch Fairness Act (H.R. 314), bringing the total up to twelve. If signed into law, H.R. 314 would provide modest compensation to victims of the Social Security Notch, or those who were born between 1917 and 1926. .Each year, due to a faulty formula that's used to determine Medicare's reimbursement rates, doctors are threatened with sizable pay cuts. This year, if Congress fails to act, doctors will face a 25 percent cut. Lawmakers consistently override scheduled pay cuts with temporary "fixes," but many doctors have grown tired of the ritual and have stopped treating Medicare patients. The estimated cost of repealing the formula has recently dropped dramatically, and many are hoping to replace it in the coming months. Doing so would provide much-needed stability for Medicare beneficiaries. .Sixty – seven percent of seniors participating in the survey said they already spend up to one-third of their Social Security benefits on Medicare costs. Another 21 percent said they spent up to one-half. "Because healthcare costs are rising more rapidly than Social Security benefits, spending on Medicare takes an increasing share of senior income as seniors age," says Cates. .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. .In addition, eleven new cosponsors signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures (PRIME) Act (S. 1123 and H.R. 2305) this week, bringing the total up to seventeen in the Senate and nineteen in the House. If signed into law, the bill would take a number of steps to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the two programs. It would enact stronger penalties, curb mistaken payments, phase out the "pay and chase" method, reduce physician identity theft, and improve data-sharing, among other things. The new cosponsors are Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Mike Johanns (NE), and Reps. Tim Griffin (AR-2), Diane Black (TN-6), Tammy Duckworth (IL-8), Ed Whitfield (KY-1), Reid Ribble (WI-8), Steve Womack (AR-3), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Tom Latham (IA-3), and Markwayne Mullin (OK-2).