The authors of the study concluded that unless the overall trend stabilizes or is reversed, or high cost-to-claim drugs are addressed, this trend will place an increasing burden on the neurologic Medicare budget. .For information about town hall meetings near you in the weeks ahead, call the local offices of your elected officials. For contact information, click HERE. .To get your health services through Original Medicare. If you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, deductibles and co-pays may apply to these preventive services. Check with your plan to see what costs and rules apply. .Changes in U.S. immigration polices impact the finances of Social Security and Medicare. Policies that expand legal immigration would result in new payroll tax revenues from immigrant workers flowing into Social Security and Medicare, strengthening program finances. On the other hand, policies that provide new work authorization to immigrants who are already working in this country illegally would provide new access to Social Security and Medicare benefits that could be based, at least in part, on earnings worked under invalid or fraudulent Social Security numbers. .At Thursday's hearing, Mr. Mathur updated the subcommittee members on the progress the administration is making to modernize the program's information technology. The administration is in the process of implementing a five-year plan that will result in improved service, stronger cyber security, and lower operating costs. Mr. Mathur reported that SSA's IT modernization efforts are currently on schedule and on budget, and that the outdated system should be fully replaced by 2022. .Who are these beneficiaries? The Inspector General's report refers to these beneficiaries as dependents and survivors of other Social Security beneficiaries and subject to the Social Security Alien Nonpayment Provision (ANP) law. The ANP forbids payment of retirement, survivor and disability benefits when non-citizens have been outside the United States for more than 6 months. But as is so often the case with Social Security law, there are several exceptions; for example, if the non-citizen is from a foreign country that has its own social insurance system and meets certain conditions. Mexico is on the list of countries that meet the conditions of the exception. .For each visitor to our website, The Senior Citizens League collects only the domain name and aggregate information on what pages are visited. This information is used to help improve the content and ease of use of our website. .On Thursday, a group of four Senators – Rand Paul (KY), Mike Lee (UT), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Jim DeMint (SC) – unveiled a major new plan to transition Medicare enrollees into the same health care program offered to employees of the federal government, including Members of Congress. According to the group, the plan will "provide Medicare patients with the best health care in America and will forever protect seniors' interests by aligning them with self-interested politicians." .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."