News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending September 1 2017

    The order covers certain medical supplies that are deemed essential, as well. .Immigration Appeal Rejected by Court .Despite increased efforts by SSA, Mr. Bagdoyan emphasized the need for better program evaluation. He said: "SSA has taken some steps to establish an organizational culture and structure conducive to fraud risk management in its disability programs … But it has yet to comprehensively assess these risks or develop a strategic approach to ensure its anti-fraud activities effectively mitigate these risks." … Continued

  • Hospitals Re Start Non Urgent Care After Coronavirus Shutdowns

    Open enrollment for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is now in progress, and before selecting or renewing your current plan, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) encourages all members and supporters to explore their options diligently. According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than 0 billion will be cut from the program by 2023 due to requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and many MA plans may be making modifications to benefit packages and provider networks that could affect enrollees significantly. .Sources: "Preliminary Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of Using the Chained CPI Starting in 2014," Congressional Budget Office, March 1, 2013. .A number of the Commission's proposals would hit seniors particularly hard. Here are a few highlights: … Continued

If he proceeds, Trump would force drug companies to accept lower payments from Medicare for treatments administered in doctors' offices. The rule would apply to certain drugs bought by the "Part B" section of Medicare. .Your husband would need to apply for Social Security disability benefits to learn if his medical condition meets the Social Security Administration's definition of disability. But before getting started, it's important to understand your choices, since your husband is also old enough to start Social Security retirement benefits. .For more information about Social Security reform options, click here. To watch Wednesday's House Budget Committee Hearing in full, click here. .Joint filers in households where both spouses work or where one or both spouses have more than one job. .A Word of Warning .43% support very gradually increasing the Social Security payroll tax rate paid by employers and employees. .Congress was out of session this week because of the Presidents' Day holiday. Nearly all of those up for re-election (all of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate) were back in their home states and districts, most likely meeting with constituents and/or raising money for their campaigns. So although there was not a lot of news coming out of Congress, news was being made by the Trump administration. .TSCL is hopeful that SSA will add additional options for authentication quickly so that Social Security beneficiaries without cellphones can regain access to their online accounts. Congressman Sam Johnson (TX-3) – Chairman of the Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee – sent a letter to SSA's Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin on Tuesday requesting swift action. He wrote, "I urge you to take a hard look at this new policy and make the changes necessary to ensure that mySocialSecurity has the right balance between security and access." .Because of the coronavirus, however, the BLS has been unable to gather much of the information from those two categories. Therefore, although they do not use the word, they are going to guess at those costs. It may be an educated guess, but it is still a guess, nonetheless.