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  • Category Issues Medicare Part B Faqs Page 3

    This doesn't mean you should completely rule out starting widow's benefits. Depending on your finances, you may be able to start a reduced widow's benefit now and later switch to your own retirement benefits after your reach full retirement age or later if it would be higher than what you are entitled to now. If your own retirement would not be higher, then starting survivor's benefits now would lock in a permanently lower benefit. .Try going back to work or getting a second job. — Reducing costs is often the harder choice, because costs tend to grow with age. You may want to consider getting a job that could provide extra income and perhaps help with health benefits. Even if you must stay at home as a caregiver, you may want to consider providing adult day care to another individual if your home is set up for that, or to find a job that allows you to work online from home. .Finally, two new cosponsors – Congressman Bill Foster (IL-11) and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) – signed on to the Nursing Home CARE Act (H.R. 4704), bringing the total up to twenty-four. The bill, if adopted, would protect Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries by more quickly codifying emergency preparedness rules for nursing home facilities that receive funding from the federal government. … Continued

  • Congressional Corner Lets Not Cripple Medicare

    The order is a direct response to the President's efforts to greenlight the importation of drugs from Canada. .However, right now there is no guarantee Republicans would do that, and instead, it is probable they would blame the Medicare cuts on the Democrats. . You are fortunate to already be in a Medicare drug plan that covers Lantus because not all Part D plans do. If your drug plan had been one of the several Medicare Part D plans that doesn't cover Lantus, this drug could cost as much as 0 per 100/ml vial. Many diabetics need about 3 vials per month to control their blood sugar, which would cost more than ,000 over a 12-month period. But since you are in a plan that covers Lantus and presumably the other drugs that you take, here's what to expect when you exhaust 2019's Part D initial coverage limit of ,820 in total drug costs, which includes what both you and your drug plan pays. … Continued

The proposal calls for switching to a more slowly-growing consumer price index (CPI), known as the "chained" CPI, to calculate annual COLAs. Chaining is an apt name for it because that's what it would do to benefits — chain them down. .I'm Entitled to a Pension for Work as a City Cop… .With about 1 million supporters, The Senior Citizens League is one of the nation's largest nonpartisan seniors groups. Located just outside Washington, D.C., its mission is to promote and assist members and supporters, to educate and alert senior citizens about their rights and freedoms as U.S. Citizens, and to protect and defend the benefits senior citizens have earned and paid for. The Senior Citizens League is a proud affiliate of The Retired Enlisted Association. .Unless something totally extraordinary happens, the President is expected to sign the bill prior to midnight on the 28th and at long last the federal government will be fully funded through the remainder of fiscal year 2021 and much needed economic stimulus and rescue money will be sent to taxpayers and businesses alike. .That was the second ruling in a week to delay the policy. A federal judge in Maryland had ordered on Dec. 23 that the rule, which was slated to take effect Jan. 1, be paused for two weeks. .If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to prevent and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse within the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Among other things, it would enact stronger fraud penalties, curb mistaken payments by the agencies, phase out the ineffective "pay and chase" practice, reduce the theft of physician identities, and improve the sharing of fraud data among states, agencies, and programs. .Radical Medicare Overhaul Proposal In Senate .TSCL Announces Support for New Bill .While most in Washington acknowledge this dilemma, and House Republicans have put forward a plan to address the issue, our leaders have yet to agree upon a solution to preserve the program for seniors beyond that date, and instead are pitting each other against seniors.