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  • Legislative Update For The Week Ending September 16 2011 Feed

    Likewise, AstraZeneca, a top competitor, has received a BARDA promise of up to .2 billion for commercializing a product derived from research at the University of Oxford. .Congress did not receive any automatic pay adjustment this year. With so many Americans (including seniors) suffering from long-term financial set backs, and so many workers out of jobs, lawmakers wisely opted to forego a raise. They last received a pay raise in January 200At the time their salary was increased 2.8% to 4,000 from 9,300. While the recession was taking a bite out of Americans' income, the pay of Members of Congress grew by ,800 from the time the recession began at the end of December 2007 through 2009, according to the Congressional Research Service. Over the decade 2000 through 2009, Congress gave themselves a total of 9 pay hikes, raising their salaries a total of ,300 from 6,700 in 1999 to the 4,000 that they receive in 201Legislation passed in 1989 established the current formula used to automatically adjust the Congressional pay increase that they refer to as a "cost-of-living adjustment" (COLA). .The database that compares health plans and Medigap policies does not give specific costs, but supplies a range of likely costs. I find some of the estimates confusing and misleading because they are based on certain government assumptions about the services an "average" Medicare recipient uses. Because nobody is "average," this may over or under state costs in your specific case depending on your health. … Continued

  • Ask Advisor May June 2018

    Because there was no waiver in the Covid relief bill, new legislation to waive the mandatory cuts is needed. Congress passed a similar waiver for Republicans' 2017 tax overhaul, which was passed in the same manner as the Covid-19 relief bill. .The Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act (S. 64), also introduced by Senators Grassley and Klobuchar, would prohibit anti-competitive pay-for-delay deals that keep much cheaper generic and biosimilar medicines off the market. .CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf made the report to President Obama's Fiscal Commission which is developing a plan to shrink the national deficit by 2015 — a target that TSCL believes will be extremely difficult to achieve without deep cuts to Social Security and widespread tax increases on middle-income taxpayers. … Continued

In a recent high profile Medicare fraud takedown, actor and entrepreneur Roberto F. Marrero, who played bits parts on Miami Vice, America's Most Wanted, and Unsolved Mysteries, was arrested for massive Medicare fraud. Marrero, who became a Medicare-licensed healthcare provider in 2007, is accused of submitting million in bogus bills for supplying purported home healthcare services for diabetic patients. ."It is not possible or believable that the infection control surveys accurately portray the extent of infection control deficiencies in U.S. nursing facilities," the report states. .A minimal source of supplemental benefits for seniors with extremely low benefits (Supplemental Security Income, or SSI). .TSCL recently delivered letters to every Member of Congress asking for their vote in favor of legislation. To learn more, visit . .As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. .The Social Security Administration maintains a special Earnings Suspense File of wage reports that don't match the name and Social Security number of those in Social Security records. According to data from the Social Security Administration, an average of 9,762,500 wage reports per year with invalid names or Social Security numbers were received from 2000 through 2007 for an average of .68 billion in wages per year. That much in wages would be worth more than billion per year in Making Work Pay tax credits in 2009 and 2010 if those trends continue. .Prevention of Fraud, Waste, and Abuse – Ensure that scarce Medicare and Social Security dollars are spent properly. .On Tuesday – three months later – a panel of three judges rejected the Obama administration's request in a 2-1 decision. They ruled that the state of Texas does have the legal standing to challenge President Obama's executive orders since implementing them will be costly to the state. ."CBO's updated estimate, based on the latest economic data, continues to show that the Average Wage Index will likely drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions of Americans will receive lower Social Security benefits unless Congress acts. A medium earner in the affected cohort could lose 0 a year for the rest of their lives. While this is a smaller cut than initially estimated, Congress must still fix this flaw in the benefit formula. These are earned benefits, and already many seniors are just scraping by with the current modest benefits. That is why I will be reintroducing the Social Security COVID-19 Correction and Equity Act to fix the benefit formula and ensure it does not happen again," said Larson.