You can also get one-on-one counseling and assistance in applying through your State Health Insurance Program. Find the contact for your area online at: shiptacenter.org..The Senior Citizens League believes that these CMS initiatives to fight Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse are encouraging steps toward containing and even preventing escalating costs and premiums. However, more steps like Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's TSCL-supported Medicare Fraud Prevention Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act should be taken. If passed, this bill would create a pilot program using biometric technology to ensure that all Medicare claims are legitimate. It would also facilitate real-time information sharing between law enforcement agencies, and it would increase the penalties for those convicted of Medicare fraud. While wasteful and fraudulent activities aren't the only issues of Medicare reform, TSCL believes that strict oversight from lawmakers, administrators, and seniors alike is a proper first step..The proposal to adopt the chained CPI for adjusting Social Security and other federal retirement benefits has been a central feature of nearly every major budget negotiation since 20The adoption of the chained CPI to calculate COLAs would not only permanently reduce Social Security benefits of more than 60 million beneficiaries, but would also increase taxes, because personal exemptions and tax brackets which are adjusted for inflation would rise more slowly..This week, one new cosponsor Rep. Glenn Thompson signed on to the Preventing and Reducing Improper Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures Act, bringing the total up to forty-nine. If signed into law, the PRIME Act would take a number of steps to comprehensively prevent fraud, waste, and abuse within the two programs a problem that TSCL believes must be addressed in order to ensure that scarce program dollars are being spent properly..Since its inception, Medicare has undergone a number of changes. Since 1972 the program has covered disabled persons under 6In the last 25 years, beneficiaries were given the option to obtain services through private managed care arrangements. And most recently, the passage of the Affordable Care Act strengthened Medicare by closing the prescription "donut hole" and expanding preventative services with no deductible or co-pay..Though the special deficit committee on deficit reduction failed to reach an agreement last week, it appears that the Super Committee was successful in shaping the discussion for future Medicare savings. "Premium support" refers to a plan in which Medicare would subsidize premiums charged by private insurers that care for beneficiaries under government contract. Experts suggest this plan is gaining support. "This is an idea that could easily resurface in the future as Congress seeks additional Medicare savings for deficit reduction," said Patricia Neuman, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation..The plan includes fostering international cooperation and promoting research and development that establishes innovative manufacturing processes and production technologies to strengthen supply chain resilience.Social Security Reform Extending the program's solvency without enacting harmful cuts..This week, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports on the state of the trust funds, and one key bill gained critical support.

2016 Eureka Awards Winner Health

Note any other relevant information and then hang up..Compare your drug and health plan options during the Medicare Open Enrollment period October 15th - December 7th. Does your current drug plan cover expensive new prescriptions? If not, you need to check your other options. Chances are another plan will. Use the Drug and Health Plan Finder at. Make sure you carefully enter every prescription drug you take in order to get a custom comparison of your best drug plan choices. Costs can vary by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and you may be very surprised by the savings from switching to a better plan. You can get unbiased help to compare your coverage. Call your Area Agency on Aging and ask for the help of a State Health Insurance Assistance Program counselor, or visit online..Third, three new cosponsors Representative John Garamendi, Representative Jim McGovern, and Representative Judy Chu signed on as cosponsors to the bipartisan Nursing Home CARE Act, bringing the total up to twenty-two. If adopted, the bill would protect Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries by more quickly codifying emergency preparedness rules for nursing home facilities that receive funding from the federal government. … Continued

Abbott Northwestern Hospital Foundation About The Foundation Publications

The more you learn about the COLA, however, the more the anemic annual boosts of our past decade raise questions. The very first COLA ever paid was 77%. No, you read that right, this is not a typo. It became payable in 1950, one year before I was born, and a full ten years after Ida May Fuller received the nation's very first Social Security benefit check for .54 - the equivalent of 0.90 today..The .5 billion for VA health care improvements will now be paid for with savings elsewhere in the budget. However, one Democratic aide said the funds used to pay for the program were gimmicks that do not harm spending in vital programs..The blueprint also calls for billion in Social Security cuts, and it would fully repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the House-passed American Health Care Act. That change would leave millions of older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare without health insurance coverage due to high costs. It would also impact around 11 million Medicare beneficiaries who are also enrolled in the Medicaid program many of whom are patients in costly nursing home facilities. … Continued

Contact Atavista Farm Today!