If signed into law, the PRIME Act would increase fraud prevention efforts within Medicare and Medicaid. Among other things, it would enact stronger fraud penalties, curb mistaken payments, phase out the practice of "pay and chase," reduce the theft of physician identities, and improve the sharing of fraud data among agencies and programs. .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. .Also last week, House Democrats unveiled a range of health care measures to be included in their coming .5 trillion package, including provisions to lower prescription drug prices and expand Medicaid in the 12 GOP-led states that have refused to do so. The measure unveiled by the House Energy and Commerce Committee includes legislation to allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices, known as H.R. 3. .Members of Congress adjourned for the holiday recess this week, with the Senate returning on Thursday to resume Fiscal Cliff negotiations. .House members are increasingly feeling the effects of a five percent budget cut passed last year. Already tight budgets have forced drastic reductions in the number of salaried positions and could reduce the amount of services provided. .Many expected the Obama administration to seek an emergency review of the decision by the Supreme Court, but on Wednesday, the Justice Department announced that it would not. Instead, the administration said it will focus on another 5th Circuit hearing that's scheduled for the week of July 6th. .Although no other generation has yet been affected by a similar Notch, that could change in the future. Congressional inaction on Social Security's long-term financing problems could give birth to a whole new generation of Notch Babies. During recent hearings on the need for making Social Security more sustainable as Baby Boomers near retirement, David Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, confirmed this saying "Doing nothing means that we are going to head to a precipitous decline in benefits. Remember the Notch Baby problem?" he asked. "This would be a Notch Baby problem magnified multiple times and it should not be allowed to happen." (10) .Senate Committee Discusses Social Security Benefit Maximization .Medicare first started covering rehabilitation services in 197Just seven years later in 1979, Congress enacted a cap of 0 on outpatient therapy due to concerns that rehabilitation outpatient services would take over the Medicare budget. The cap – which was indexed to medical inflation – remained in place until the passage of the "Balanced Budget Act of 1997," when a ,500 cap was passed into law and set to take effect in 199However, President Clinton halted the implementation of the ,500 cap, leaving services open to reimbursements by Medicare. Since 1999, several bills introduced in Congress sought to either repeal or keep the spending cap on rehabilitation services, with the cap drawing bipartisan criticism as being unfair to Medicare beneficiaries.