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policies) say that if you have a net worth below 0,000 to 0,000 (not.TSCL questions whether the more widespread use of subjective criteria in disability determinations may be contributing to disability fraud. Recently, 134 people, including retired New York City police officers and firefighters, were charged in one of the largest disability frauds on record. Those indicted were charged with faking mental disabilities, like post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from responding to the 911 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits..On Thursday, after thirty hours of debate, the Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the next HHS Secretary. Burwell has served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the past year, and she will now replace Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who announced her resignation in April. In her new position, Burwell will manage the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs, and she will also oversee the continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act, among other things..By Representative John Garamendi.And it could be worse if inflation is lower and Medicare Part B premiums are higher. Due to a special provision of law known as the Social Security hold harmless provision, when the dollar amount of the Medicare Part B premium increase is greater than the dollar amount of an individual's COLA, the Medicare Part B premium is adjusted to prevent a reduction in Social Security benefits from December of the previous year. Those affected by hold harmless wind up with no growth in their net Social Security benefit after the deduction for Part B premiums. That leaves nothing extra left over to deal with other rising costs such as housing and drug costs..Following the hearing, The Senior Citizens League submitted a proposal for strengthening and improving the DI program. We recommended the following seven policy changes based on the results of several surveys of TSCL's supporters:.In fact, Senators on both sides of the aisle praised Burwell during their speeches on the Senate floor, expressing their high hopes for her work as HHS Secretary. Sen. Mike Johanns called her "a breath of fresh air," and Sen. Rob Portman said he thinks Burwell will help the department "get its act together." In addition, Sen. Johnny Isakson stated: "I'm looking forward to having someone in [HHS] that's going to be able to answer the hard questions. I might not like the answer, but I like having somebody who has the intellect and the capability and the willingness to be communicating with the Members of Congress.".President Obama signed it into law shortly thereafter, saying it will improve the Medicare program "because it starts encouraging payments based on quality, not the number of tests that are provided or the number of procedures that are applied, but whether or not people actually start feeling better." The law took effect immediately, and upon the bill's signing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that it had already begun reimbursing physicians at the full payment rate..The Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration recently said that office is assessing the impact from COVID-19, but the smaller than expected year over - year increase appears to be due to excess deaths. About 80% of the deaths from COVID-19 were people age 65 and older - more than 374,004 people, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.