News

  • Legislative Update Week Ending October 7 2016

    Support Grows for Key Bill .The Senior Citizens League regularly tracks and estimates the projected annual COLA increase with the release of monthly consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Inflation data through August are confirming that the COLA will be in the vicinity of 0.2%, forecast by the Social Security Trustees, and that would trigger the "hold harmless" provision," Gibbons says. .The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on nursing homes, leading to large numbers of residents and staff becoming become ill or dying. We hope that such catastrophes may help focus attention on long-term problems that plague these facilities. … Continued

  • U S Treasury Seizes Tax Refunds For Old Social Security Debts

    This week, the Obama administration released its much-anticipated 2013 budget proposal, and the House-Senate conference committee compromised on a deal to prevent payment cuts to Medicare physicians and extend the payroll tax holiday. In addition, four new cosponsors signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act. .One is that vaccines for the flu and pneumonia may be protective because the two diseases they are designed to prevent are known to affect the brain. Another possibility involves evidence linking Alzheimer's to a general weakening in the immune system and to changes that allow more bacteria and viruses into the brain. .Your husband would need to apply for Social Security disability benefits to learn if his medical condition meets the Social Security Administration's definition of disability. But before getting started, it's important to understand your choices, since your husband is also old enough to start Social Security retirement benefits. … Continued

You should still take steps to protect yourself and others in many situations, like wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Take these precautions whenever you are: .Downsizing doctor networks is one way that Medicare Advantage insurers are dealing with the sizable cuts. Some insurers have also begun to increase premiums and out-of-pocket costs that enrollees pay. Austin Pittman, President of UnitedHealth, told the Wall Street Journal: "It's no secret that we are under substantial funding pressure from the federal government … That's what's driving our actions." .The Social Security Administration maintains a special Earnings Suspense File of wage reports that don't match the name and Social Security number of those in Social Security records. According to data from the Social Security Administration, an average of 9,762,500 wage reports per year with invalid names or Social Security numbers were received from 2000 through 2007 for an average of .68 billion in wages per year. That much in wages would be worth more than billion per year in Making Work Pay tax credits in 2009 and 2010 if those trends continue. .Now there is a lobbying effort to make sure enough money is provided for those programs because without sufficient funding states could choose not to take the money and leave their Medicaid programs running as is. .Access to Medicare and Medicaid including community-based long-term care support and services and programs that make Medicare more affordable. .Likewise, AstraZeneca, a top competitor, has received a BARDA promise of up to .2 billion for commercializing a product derived from research at the University of Oxford. .Sources: "Latino Voters and the 2010 Election: Numbers, Parties, and Issues, National Council of La Raza, 2010. .Super Committee Running out of Time .TSCL believes a better approach to Medicare Advantage "risk adjustments" is needed, and should be written into law, rather than left to the discretion of politically appointed Medicare administrators. Congress could do this by writing a method for calculating the adjustment into the law. This approach would make payment for MA plans more like payment for other Medicare providers.