Services Orthopedic ServicesTSCL is continuing to meet with lawmakers and deliver your petitions calling for a fair COLA. To send an email to your member of Congress now!.Representative Peter DeFazio.The suppressed growth in Social Security benefits not only creates ongoing benefit adequacy issues for retirees, but also Medicare budget problems when the COLA is not sufficient to cover rising Part B premiums for large numbers of beneficiaries. When the dollar amount of the annual Medicare Part B premium increase is greater than the dollar amount of an individual's annual cost of living adjustment, the Social Security benefits of about 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are protected by the hold-harmless provision in the Social Security Act. The Medicare Part B premium of those individuals is reduced to prevent their net Social Security benefits from being lower than the year before. … Continued
Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee 2020 Legislative Staff Achievement Award RecipientsPresident 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..A newly approved drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease is drawing criticism for it's ,000 price tag, especially given its lack of proven effectiveness. Aduhelm stirred controversy when the Food and Drug Administration's own expert advisory panel was nearly unanimous in opposing the drug's approval due to mixed results in studies of effectiveness..But the transitional formula failed, and in most cases, the new benefit formula abruptly kicked in. Extreme inflation that climbed to 14.3% in 1980 magnified the disparities. When the benefits are illustrated on a bar graph, they show a deep "V" Notch. … Continued
