News

• Legislative Update For Week Ending April 4 2012

  If you or someone you know is struggling to make their Social Security benefits stretch from one month to another, there are two Medicare programs that can help with medical costs for those eligible — Medicare Savings Programs which cover some Part B costs, and Medicare Extra Help which provides help with prescription costs. .Popular with Medicare recipients, Medicare Advantage plans typically offer very low, or even no, monthly premiums, lower costs for some services than traditional fee-for-service Medicare, and coverage for some services that traditional Medicare does not cover, such as dental and vision care. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans has more than doubled over the last decade, from 11.1 million in 2010, to 24.1 million in 2020. Ensuring the proper payment level is important not only for the federal government, but also for beneficiaries, since overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans drive up overall Part B costs and cause higher Part B premiums for all beneficiaries, even those not enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. ."Addressing our fiscal challenges will require many tough choices and policy changes—but switching to the chained CPI represents neither. Such a change offers policy makers the rare opportunity to achieve significant savings spread across the entire budget by making a technical improvement to existing policies. As such, across-the-board adoption of the chained CPI should be at the top of the list for any deficit reduction plan or down payment." … Continued

• Legislation To Lower Drug Costs Moving In House And Senate

  One rule, known as "most favored nation," would require Medicare to tie the prices it pays for drugs to those paid by other wealthy countries. The other rule would limit rebates paid to middle men (called "pharmacy benefit managers" or "PBMs") by drug makers in Medicare. .According to the IRS, advance payments of the Child Tax Credit will be made from July through December to eligible taxpayers and will be up to 50% of the credit. Advance payments will be estimated from your 2020 tax returns, or 2019 returns if the 2020 returns are not filed and processed yet. . Double check the price quote that you received by checking the difference in price between several retail walk-in pharmacies and Humana's mail-in. Sometimes the price can be very different between the two. I learned that my drug plan's mail-in pharmacy would charge me 3 for three albuterol inhalers. The small local walk-in pharmacy was still charging just 1.99 for three. Often, mail order can be less expensive than walk-in retail. Check for each separate drug. You can use the Medicare drug plan finder to help you look up your plan and learn the cost of your co-pay or co-insurance. … Continued