News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending December 24 2011

    Prescription Drug Re-Importation – Making safe, secure re-importation a reality. .The expert witnesses at the hearing focused their suggestions on improving the marketplace. Edmud Hailsmaier – Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation – said policymakers should change how they see the individual market. He said it should be thought of as two distinct pools which include (1) individuals wishing to be protected against the financial liability of large health expenses, and (2) those who are very sick and have no other insurance options. .Medicare health plans also have new rules about co-pays and co-insurance. Copayments can vary drastically between MA plans, but through 2018, individual plans were required to offer all enrollees in the plan's service area access to the same benefits at the same level of cost - sharing. In 2019, MA plans have the option of imposing tiers for the cost - sharing of contracted providers, as an incentive to encourage enrollees to seek care from specific providers. Plans that utilize tiered cost-sharing must disclose tiered co-pays and co-insurance amounts to enrollees and providers, ensure that services at each tier of cost-sharing are available to all enrollees, and ensure that all enrollees are charged the same amount for the same service from the same provider. … Continued

  • Social Security Medicare Questions March 2012

    The House of Representatives did pass the needed legislation last week so now it moves to the Senate, where passage is not certain. That's because the Senate is equally divided 50-50 and no Republicans said they would support President Biden's Covid relief bill, which resulted in a 50-50 vote on the legislation. .You don't need to be a doctor to understand that Medicare-for-all would mean access to quality health care for none. So, as presidential candidates continue their road trip to ruin for rural America, remember that the hollow promises of a trillion government-run proposal would disproportionately affect the families who work every single day to feed and clothe you and your families. .To learn how you can join the effort for an Emergency COLA and Medicare relief, Visit … Continued

His decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Air Force Achievement Medal, Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Vietnam Service Medal with 9 Battle Stars. .Other Goods and Services: (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses). .Texas has been hit the hardest by rural hospital closures, with 23 closures since 2013 and as many as 45% of rural and community hospitals operating in the red. By eliminating all private insurance with the single stroke of a pen, Medicare-for-all would force many of our state's already struggling hospitals to be reimbursed at lower rates, further complicating the financial solvency of rural health care providers. .According to the Center for Public Integrity, one of the nation's oldest nonpartisan investigative news services, home visits have risen sharply at many Medicare Advantage health plans. While visiting nurses and doctors don't offer any treatment during these visits, they do report exam findings to the patient's primary care doctor. Insurers say the free annual physicals offer a new benefit to help certain health plan enrollees stay fit and in their homes as long as possible. But critics, including some Members of Congress, are concerned the visits may be padding Medicare's bill. .By the time the Inspector General has performed its audit reports and given CMS its recommendations, CMS has limited, if any, time to collect before the statute of limitation expires. The OIG recommends that CMS should pursue legislation to extend the statute of limitations so that the recovery period exceeds the reopening period for Medicare payments. In addition, the OIG recommends that CMS develop a system to verify that the amount reported collected has actually been collected. TSCL heartily supports these commonsense recommendations. With Congress debating a major Medicare overhaul that would make seniors pay a higher portion of Medicare costs in the future, Congress should move quickly to close the statute of limitation loophole that's costing us millions in lost recoveries. .While inflation varies significantly depending on the area of the country in which people live, locality - based payment rates are not calculated on living costs or specific price levels like the COLA. According to a story appearing on the Federal News Network's website, this is a common misconception about locality pay. In fact, consumer inflation is not even a factor when setting locality pay. .This week, the 115th Congress convened and lawmakers in the Senate took the first steps towards a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. .This week, the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R.1205, S.915) gained one new cosponsor in Congressman Steve Stivers (OH-15), bringing the new cosponsor total up to 16In the Senate, the bill gained six new cosponsors in Senator Bill Nelson (FL), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Senator Mazie Hirono (HI), Senator Jack Reed (RI), and Senator Patrick Leahy (VT). If signed into law, the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) – two Social Security provisions that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of public employees each year. .Here's something hard to believe, but true. Our government is paying Social Security benefits to thousands of Mexicans who don't live in this country, or were never entitled to benefits based on their own work record. A new report from the Social Security Office of Inspector General details the growing problem of thousands of Mexicans who routinely visit the United States once a month to establish a claim to Social Security benefits.