Annual cuts to healthcare providers. The Affordable Care Act provided for a number of cost-cutting mechanisms that cut government spending on hospitals and other healthcare providers. Medicare's Chief Actuary and the Congressional Budget Office have raised doubts that the savings targets can be achieved over a prolonged period of time, without providers dropping out of Medicare. Media reports already suggest that a growing number of Medicare beneficiaries are left with significant uncovered costs as hospitals keep patients listed as outpatients rather than inpatients due to new rules that penalize hospitals for frequent readmissions. TSCL is concerned that these sorts of problems may escalate as provisions of the Affordable Care Act are implemented..It's not perfect - we still have a year to go before implementation starts. However, starting in 2022, consumers will no longer receive surprise or "balance bills" when they are unknowingly treated by out-of-network providers. Patients will pay only the deductible and copayment amounts they ordinarily would under the in-network terms of their insurance plans. Medical providers will not be allowed to hold patients responsible for difference between the amount they get and the higher fees they would like to charge. Instead providers will have to work that out with insurers..The tax cut, which reduced the Social Security payroll tax for employees from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, makes the Social Security trust funds reliant on general revenues and undermines the self-funding nature of the program. Social Security is funded by payroll taxes, and currently faces a billion cash-flow deficit. Extending the tax cut could exacerbate the program's funding issues..He had demanded a payroll tax cut previously this year. Thankfully, Congress did not go along with him when it passed the previous legislation meant to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the ailing economy that resulted..This week, the House Budget Committee advanced a budget resolution that would reform the Medicare program, and the Senate Aging Committee met to discuss the trajectory of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, three key bills gained support in Congress..TSCL Supports New Anti-Fraud Bill.More Means Testing For Medicare: Higher income seniors with incomes of more than ,000 already pay more for their Medicare Part B and Part D premiums. More seniors will pay the higher costs in the future because the income threshold is not adjusted for inflation. President Obama has proposed raising the amounts that higher-income seniors would pay, and proposes new income thresholds that would push seniors into higher premium brackets more quickly..TSCL's review of the Totalization Agreement and related documents raises a number of significant questions. For example, no new estimates of the cost of the agreement to the Social Security Trust Fund were released to TSCL..punitive tax penalty.
