Your daughter can get free one-on-one counseling for her father-in-law through your State Health Insurance Program (SHIP). For more information about the Medicare Part B delayed enrollment penalty visit the Medicare interactive website of the Medicare Rights Center. .Recently a group of Medicare patients and their families sued the Obama Administration, saying they were deprived of coverage because the policy allows hospitals to avoid admitting seniors with chronic ailments as inpatients. The plaintiffs charged that the observation services policy, which is intended to apply to short stays of no more than 24 to 48 hours, is instead being used to keep Medicare patients on outpatient status for longer stays, including some lasting up to a week. As a result, the seniors incurred medical charges as high as ,000 for skilled nursing care, drugs and other costs that Medicare Part B does not cover. Inpatient stays are covered under Medicare Part A, and all of ,156 deductible and most, if not all, of the co-insurance is covered by Medigap supplements. .Changes in your earnings: Did you report increases in salary or commissions? You need to keep Social Security informed of higher earnings in order for your benefits to be accurately withheld. .A Humana Medicare Advantage plan in Florida improperly collected nearly 0 million in payments in 2015 by overstating how sick some of its enrollees were. A new audit by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is seeking to get the money back. If successful, the audit penalty would be what has been described as "by far the largest" ever imposed on a Medicare Advantage company. But Humana has sharply disputed the OIG's findings, and has said that the recommendations "do not represent final determinations, and Humana will have the right to appeal." .TSCL Endorses Two New House Bills .The report adds that, "The pharmaceutical industry has already shattered records this year, spending an unprecedented million to lobby the federal government in the first three months of this year, according to the CSP, including .7 million from PhRMA. Stephen Ubl, the CEO of PhRMA, criticized H.R. 3 last month, claiming it would ‘destroy an estimated one million American jobs.' The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest lobbying spender this year, has also come out against the bill, comparing it to ‘government price controls' and claiming it would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. .TSCL believes that the combined effect of COLA cuts and higher Medicare costs would leave the majority seniors far less able to afford necessities in coming years. Today the average monthly Social Security benefit is just ,150 before deductions for Medicare premiums. The average family income of married couples 65 and over including Social Security is just ,718. .Big Effort to Lower Drug Prices Once Again in Congress .The approach taken in the Scott bill is also the approach favored in the Senate bills. Ways and Means Chairman Neal said they will start negotiating a compromise between the two House bills that will also be agreeable to the Senate and he is optimistic they can reach a solution soon. This approach is opposed by conservative groups such as the National Taxpayers Union, which have opposed what they call "rate-setting."