News

  • Legislative Update For Week Ending September 18 2015

    Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that revealed Medicare outpatient plans are three times more expensive for the same drugs as those covered by Medicaid. .The Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a bold new model to save money and improve healthcare quality by changing the way the government pays doctors. The Administration is taking steps to ensure that, by 2018, up to half of all payments to doctors won't be for visits and procedures, but rather for providing "high quality" care. The plan is to pay doctors on how they perform. .Medicare pays for a wide range of services including many preventive benefits, but routine eye care is not one of them. Medicare-eligible adults with diabetes can, however, get a dilated eye exam to check for diabetic eye disease. The patient's primary care doctor is responsible for determining how often this exam is needed. Medicare also covers an annual eye exam to check for glaucoma if the patient is diabetic or there is a family history of glaucoma. … Continued

  • Center For Disease Control Has New Guidance For Those Fully Vaccinated

    In the midst of all this, a new study by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) found that the drop in average wages in recent years coupled with no cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs), and projections of extremely low COLAs, is reducing the amount retirees can count on in Social Security benefits over their retirement. .Economic Conditions Compounded Problem .Within two years of enactment, the Government Accountability Office would report to Congress and the task force on the financial exploitation of older Americans, including the associated economic costs, contributing factors, unreported cases, and policy responses. … Continued

The TSCL report which contains Social Security Administration (SSA) data from 1937 through 2013, includes the following findings: .Thus the new formula went into effect almost immediately for most people and is one reason why retirees born over the ten-year period of 1917 through 1926 were affected, not only those covered by the five-year phase-in. In addition, the economy did not perform the way Congress and the Social Security Administration assumed it would under the new benefit formula. Slower than anticipated wage growth, and higher than expected price inflation, resulted in even greater benefit reductions than under original assumptions. These economic conditions persisted for a decade, thus affecting those born over a ten-year period. .This week, The Senior Citizens League was pleased to see support grow for two key bills that would improve the Social Security and Medicare programs if adopted. .Social Security recipients can look forward to receiving an annual cost – of – living adjustment (COLA) of about 1.8 percent in 2018, according to an estimate released today by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). "A COLA of that amount would make it the highest since 2012 — but even at 1.8 percent, the raise is less than half of the 4 percent that COLAs averaged from 2000-2009," says TSCL's Social Security policy analyst, Mary Johnson. .Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact The Senior Citizens League at any time. .The study found that people who are retiring now, or who are approaching retirement, are facing a significant loss in lifetime Social Security benefits. Although the amounts vary by earnings, and years worked, in some cases today's average-earning retirees could stand to lose nearly ,000 over a 20-year retirement. .Federal records and senior advocates indicate that many observation patients who call Medicare about the billing problem are told there is nothing that Medicare can do to help. Hospitals are not required to tell patients they are under observation. Patients only learn they were receiving observation services when the bill arrives. By then it's too late because hospitals and doctors are prohibited from reclassifying observation patients as inpatients once they've been discharged. ."Many of the most-expensive medications are the biologic treatments that we often see advertised on television," Mulcahy said. .August Recess Continues for House Lawmakers