Screen your calls: Even if you have caller ID, experts suggest screening calls any way. More robo-callers are making their calls appear to be local by using phone numbers from your own local calling area. Unless you know the number of the caller is legit, don't pick up. Legitimate callers, such as your doctor's office calling to remind of an appointment, will leave a message. Tell your family and friends to leave a message and to keep talking at least long enough for you to get to the phone if your phone's speaker allows you to hear the caller's message. .The extra time was needed because although both houses of Congress were finally able to pass the needed legislation, the bill was nearly 5,600 pages in length. It is probable that no member of Congress actually read the entire bill and likely very few Congressional staff members read it either. .In the coming weeks and months, TSCL looks forward to working with Congressman Duncan's office to build bipartisan support for the CPI for Seniors Act. For updates on the progress of the bill, click HERE for visit the Bill Tracking section of our website. .Medicare Advantage, and its predecessor Medicare+Choice —both known as Medicare Part "C" — however, has no clear track record of saving the government money. In fact, for a number of years, Medicare Advantage cost more than traditional Medicare. .This week, one new cosponsor – Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (MP) – signed on to the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) Act (H.R. 1030), bringing the total up to twenty. If signed into law, the CPI-E Act would base the Social Security COLA upon the spending patterns of seniors. Currently, it's based upon the way young, urban workers spend their money – a method that underestimates the spending inflation that seniors experience each year. .While a drop in inflation should mean that people don't have to spend as much money due to higher prices, that hasn't been the case for older households, according to a survey by TSCL. The majority of survey participants, 72 percent, reported that their household budgets had gone up per month during 2015 even though the CPI-W in 2015 indicated that no COLA (for 2016) was payable. .If these cuts ever went into effect, it could mean tens of millions of seniors no longer have access to their doctors and essential healthcare services. This is unacceptable. For too long, Congress has failed to seriously tackle the issue of physician payment reform, and instead has kicked the can down the road with short-term fixes that have now created a long-term fiscal nightmare. This has been the absolute wrong approach for American seniors and our federal budget. And that is why I have been working hard to protect seniors' access to their doctors by putting forth a plan to fix this broken system once and for all. .Upon introducing the Protecting Medicare Beneficiaries Act, Sen. Wyden said, "Today's fix will protect over 370,000 Oregonians and millions of seniors across the country from an abrupt and dramatic increase in Medicare costs. It is urgent that Congress take decisive action to ensure vulnerable Americans aren't harmed by this archaic policy." .With China taking drastic measures to try and contain the spread of the disease, including quarantines and shutting down some industries, production to supply America's pharmacies and medicine cabinets is at risk of interruption.