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Medicare Advantage plans combine both parts of Medicare, and the health plans are required to cover everything that is covered under original Medicare. However, your provider may be reporting your doctor's orders to your Medicare Advantage plan in order to get prior authorization for your CT scan. Most Medicare Advantage plans routinely require prior authorization to manage your care and to prevent excess use of care that has not been documented as medically necessary. This practice protects you from surprise bills, and confirms that the provider is authorized to bill your Medicare Advantage plans for your care..Representative Elijah Cummings introduced H.R. 448 on January 10, 201It has since been referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and to the Committee on Ways and Means..Nearly 20% of participants in TSCL's Senior Survey say they spent ,100 or more out-of-pocket on prescription drugs in 201And, as we age, all of us face the grim potential that a new health problem could increase our spending on prescription drugs to this level. Doing nothing to lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries is not a good option..The House-Senate Conference Committee met multiple times this week for public negotiations, but little progress seems to have been made. The group of twenty must come to an agreement before the end of the month in order to: continue unemployment payments, block a Medicare doctor payment cut, and extend the Social Security payroll tax cut..When comparing plans, beneficiaries are generally told to check premium costs, deductibles and other cost-sharing, whether the plan covers the drugs you actually take, provider networks, and added benefits, if any, not covered by Medicare. All of that is essential. But one key consideration that can be overlooked is how the plan uses prior authorization..One of the first tax cuts to expire under the recent tax law is likely to disproportionately affect older taxpayers and others with the highest healthcare costs starting in 2019, says The Senior Citizens League. "The medical expense deduction will become less generous in 2019, and that is likely to affect older taxpayers, because they tend to have high medical expenses," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. "A less generous healthcare cost deduction could mean higher taxable income next year," she cautions..The Senior Citizens League is working for enactment of legislative measures that would lower prescription drug costs. To learn how to get involved, visit..Shuffling doctors can heighten the risk of mishaps. A study of at least 2,200 older adults published in 2016 found that nearly 4 in 10 were taking at least five medications at the same time. Fifteen percent of them were at risk of drug-to-drug interaction..It will be important to continue to wear masks, maintain social distancing, wash our hands frequently, and continue the other precautions we've been taking in order to protect those for whom the vaccine might not work. As time goes on and more people are vaccinated and more who've gotten the virus get better, the rates of infection will start to drop. It's at that point we can begin to go back to normal.