Most seniors are aware of the impact of the consumer price index on COLAs. But switching to the more slowly growing "chained" CPI, if applied government-wide, would be far more reaching than Social Security cuts alone. In every aspect where applied, seniors would receive less in benefits and pay more in higher taxes. The following chart illustrates:.One option recently recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission would repeal the SGR and encourage physicians to join two-sided risk accountable care organizations. Doctors participating in ACOs voluntarily group with hospitals and other providers to lower costs and better coordinate care. Pilot ACOs that are currently operating only see rewards for delivering high-quality, low-cost care. Those in two-sided risk ACOs, however, would also be penalized for providing low-quality, high-cost care. According to MedPAC, substantial savings would result, but many are still skeptical about the potential of ACOs..On Wednesday, the Senate Special Committee on Aging convened to hold a hearing titled "Stopping Senior Scams." At the hearing, members of the committee released this year's Fraud Book, which details the ten most common scams reported to the committee's fraud hotline. In 2017, the hotline received calls from more than 1,400 seniors who were the victims of robocalls, lottery scams, grandparent scams, and romance scams, among many others..Although Medicare has an annual Open Enrollment period, when beneficiaries can compare drug plans and switch to lower costing drug plans, few retirees actually do so. "In most areas of the country, the Medicare beneficiaries have more than two dozen Part D plans to sort through, and the average person just don't know where to begin, or that free, unbiased help is available," Johnson says. "Consequently, Medicare beneficiaries winds up overpaying for prescriptions that could be obtained for a lower cost from a different drug plan.".It can happen because the patient got treated by a doctor not on the list of providers that contract with that person's health plan to provide care at negotiated rates. This can happen on visits to a hospital emergency room, when there's no option of which doctor to see, for example..There are several ways it happens. One has to do with the type of SSN that was used for employment. The 2004 law requires work authorization in order to claim Social Security. But the law pertains only to individuals who received their SSN after January 1, 200If the individual was issued an SSN prior to January 1, 2004, like the 7 million non-work SSNs issued prior to 2003, the 2004 law prohibiting payment of Social Security does not apply. According to the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office, that group does not need to have ever received legal work authorization in order to claim benefits - they may have worked illegally their entire careers..I understand that I can receive Social Security benefits while I'm still working. I'm 64 but my earnings are pretty modest. I have about ,000 in savings and the mortgage on my home will be paid off later this year. What are your thoughts on starting Social Security at 64 and continuing to work?.There are better and more fair choices for indexing the COLA. The BLS also measures the price change experience of All Urban Consumers which covers about 88% of the U.S. population including retirees as well as younger people, and it even maintains a "senior-specific" experimental CPI, the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, that our government has quietly tinkered with since 1983, but has never used to calculate the COLA..In addition, the Senate sometimes holds pro-forma sessions during recess periods to prevent the president from making recess appointments. This is apparently why the Senate remains in the pro-forma session since the House is also out of session. The Senate has the Constitutional responsibility to confirm certain appointments of the President but President Trump has made many appointments at other times when the Senate has been in recess and there are many "acting" secretaries, assistant secretaries and other officials of various departments and agencies serving without Senate confirmation.
