Physical, occupational and speech therapy services for some patients, especially those who have long-term severe illnesses, are the services that have been impacted the most. Under a new Medicare reimbursement system, home health agencies now have a stronger financial incentive to treat patients who need short-term therapy after a stay in the hospital or rehabilitation facility. Payments under the new reimbursement system are higher for people who are discharged from an institution and have services provided within the first 30 days - and get lower after that..Open enrollment for the exchanges begins October 1, 2013 for coverage starting January 1, 201To learn more, visit the new website. To get an idea about whether you qualify for a government subsidy visit the Kaiser Family Foundation's Subsidy Calculator..President Obama and House leadership are discussing support of a more "limited approach" to immigration reform. Under discussion is a plan to grant illegal immigrants limited legal status by providing the right to work in the U.S., but not citizenship..Research Medicare Advantage health plans that offer some dental benefits. Medicare's fall Open Enrollment period starts October 15th and runs through December If you are already enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan it's a good idea to compare plans in your area every year anyway, and switch if you can find better coverage at a lower cost. You need to do the math on the deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance for the comprehensive benefits offered, including hospital, doctors, outpatient services, and prescription drugs that you already take before switching. Pay close attention to the fine print on additional benefits. Those dental benefits may only be in the form of discounts with network providers. TSCL strongly recommends AGAINST dropping a Medigap supplement to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan solely based on additional benefits like dental coverage. Those additional benefits can end suddenly, especially when plans cut costs to compensate for lower government reimbursements, so don't bet your Medigap coverage on them..facility, or nursing home, long-term care is very expensive. Nursing home care.The Democratic Platform.The House of Representatives returned from break this week and the Senate will follow suit beginning next week. New co-sponsors have been added to two key bills, and the effort to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program moves one step closer..Third, three new cosponsors Representative John Garamendi, Representative Jim McGovern, and Representative Judy Chu signed on as cosponsors to the bipartisan Nursing Home CARE Act, bringing the total up to twenty-two. If adopted, the bill would protect Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries by more quickly codifying emergency preparedness rules for nursing home facilities that receive funding from the federal government..The Bipartisan Policy Center points out in a recent blog, that each of these sources of revenues is negatively impacted by high unemployment. When people are out of work, no payroll taxes are withheld from earnings. A portion of Social Security benefits is taxable when a Social Security recipient has an income higher than ,000 or ,000 for a couple filing jointly. But the coronavirus recession has impacted both earnings from jobs and the value of retirement accounts, so that fewer retirees will meet the income thresholds that make their benefits taxable this year. Finally, the Federal Reserve has responded to the recession by cutting interest rates, which means that the yields on the bonds held by the Social Security Trust Funds are smaller and will provide lower interest income. A recession also causes a higher number of new claims when older workers are forced to retire earlier than planned, raising costs in the short term.
