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On Wednesday, lawmakers on the Senate HELP Committee held a courtesy hearing to question Representative Tom Price, a Congressman from Georgia and an orthopedic surgeon who has been nominated to fill the position of HHS Secretary. Both the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fall under the jurisdiction of HHS, and the agency has one of the federal government's largest budgets at trillion..My frail mother was in the hospital after passing out and falling. She stayed "in observation" for four days and received a number of tests for stroke, heart and circulatory problems. After discharge, her doctor said she needed nursing home care. The nursing home warned us that if mother's hospital stay was observation Medicare would not cover the nursing home stay. She has received several large bills for the hospital care. We can't afford to pay for this care out-of-pocket. Can you suggest anything?.The Social Security trustees now anticipate that when the old age and survivor fund runs out of money in 2034, it will be able to pay only 76% of the retirement and survivor benefits otherwise due to recipients..Medicare Part D discounts in the "doughnut hole." Once both drug plan enrollees and their plan have spent the initial coverage amount, they reach the Part D coverage gap or "doughnut hole." Prior to the Affordable Care Act, seniors paid 100% of drug costs in the doughnut hole, unless they were covered by a plan that provided some gap coverage. Under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, once seniors hit the coverage gap, they get a 50% discount on covered brand name drugs and pay 86% of the plan's costs for covered generic drugs until they spend a total of ,700 for the year. Some plans offer additional coverage for generics during the gap..If the Social Security COLA were based on a more accurate measure of inflation for senior citizens, this year's increase would not have been zero it would have been around 0.6 percent according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Do you support legislation that would base the COLA on a more accurate inflation index like the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly?.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..A report came out this weekend about the possibility of new major cuts to Medicare. This could result because of Senate rules about how many votes it takes to pass legislation..TSCL will keep a close eye on the negotiations as they evolve in the coming weeks, and we will encourage lawmakers to avoid another government shutdown. For updates, visit the Legislative News section of our website, or our new account on Twitter..Trump Gives up his Demand for a Payroll Tax Cut