News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending March 11 2016

    What strategies are key to better managing healthcare costs in retirement? .What would locality pay adjustments mean for your Social Security benefits? It's unclear, and likely difficult to estimate. Studies would have to be performed to compare locality - based pay adjustments to what future annual COLAs might be. Locality pay adjustments would be higher in areas where private sector pay scales are higher than those of federal workers, and lower in areas where pay scales are lower. The percentage of the annual locality pay increase would vary depending on where you live. Some retirees would receive a lower percentage of increase, or even no increase, while others a higher percentage. .Specialists are already warning that under the new "quality initiatives" some patients may have difficulty finding services under the new system as doctors join larger practices or stop accepting patients. As doctors reorganize and move into new HMO - like Accountable Care Organizations, all sorts of new questions are coming up. Does this payment system create an incentive to send unprofitably sick patients with complicated conditions elsewhere for care? How will the government measure quality, and what evidence will the Administration use to determine successful doctor performance? … Continued

  • Social Security Disability Close To Insolvency

    One new cosponsor – Rep. Denny Heck (WA-10) – signed on to Rep. Allyson Schwartz's (PA-13) Medicare Physician Payment Innovation Act (H.R. 574) this week, bringing the total up to thirty-three. The bill, if signed into law, would repeal and replace the faulty formula that is currently used to determine reimbursements for physicians who treat Medicare patients. .When the Office of Inspector General matched the 6.5 million Social Security numbers against the Social Security Administrations file, it found 67,000 of the numbers were used to report wages for people other than the cardholders, a sign the numbers were used for illegal work. According to the Associated Press, one Social Security number was used 613 different times. An additional 194 numbers were used at least 50 times each. .However, others at Tuesday's hearing focused on the skyrocketing prescription drug costs for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. In his opening statement, Ranking Member Ron Wyden (OR) said, "The fact is, seniors are getting pounded by drug costs. And in my view, there is an enormous amount of work that has to be done to guarantee that seniors have affordable access to the medications they need." … Continued

As a proud affiliate of TREThe Enlisted Association, and because many of TSCL supporters are military retirees we keep a close eye on the health benefits of military retirees. .What is the full retirement age for Social Security? .For information about town hall meetings near you in the final days of the week-long recess, call the local offices of your elected officials. You can find contact information for your Members of Congress right here. .One rule, known as "most favored nation," would require Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other wealthy countries. The other rule would limit rebates paid to middle men (called "pharmacy benefit managers" or "PBMs") by drug makers in Medicare. .Trump Issues Executive Order on Prescription Drugs .Now, the government of Canada is banning drug manufacturers and distributors from shipping any Canadian drugs that might be at risk of shortage to the United States. .The aggressive collection efforts resulted from a one-line change tucked into the 2008 Farm Bill lifting the statute of limitations. The U.S. Treasury seized a reported .9 billion in tax refunds this year alone — million of that was for debts more than 10 years old. The Social Security Administration says that 400,000 taxpayers collectively owe 4 million in debts that are more than 10 years old. ."Most people 65 and over take more than one prescription drug, so to get the lowest-costing plan that's right for you, people need to do a drug plan comparison based on all the drugs they currently take, " Johnson explains. "In addition, you should carefully compare prices at network retail pharmacies as well as mail order — those prices can also vary significantly," Johnson notes. .After raiding the current system, the health care law then takes the one aspect of Medicare that everyone agrees is broken and uses it as a model for the future. The health care law establishes the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) as a tool that is supposed to hold down costs; it is modeled after the failed formula that sets the underfunded Medicare physician reimbursement rates. President Obama recently doubled down on this controversial rationing board, and it seems to be the Democrats' only proposal.