Latest News
Obamacare Awash in Millions of Data ‘Inconsistencies,’ Report Finds
Little more than eight months ago, the bungled rollout of the government’s Obamacare website, HealthCare.gov, touched off an avalanche of bad news for President Obama and his health care team. Now comes a new federal report that gives more details…
Using Immediate Annuities to Guarantee Retirement Income
With thousands of baby boomers hitting retirement age each day, you might think that investments that offered guaranteed income payments would be among the most popular. Yet immediate annuities—which, in return for a lump sum, do precisely that—are still something…
Medicare Costs for Breast Cancer Screenings Skyrocket, But Do Patients Benefit?
Breast cancer screening costs for Medicare patients skyrocketed between 2001 and 2009, while the number of screening mammograms performed remained stable. What makes this even worse is that the increased cost did not lead to earlier detection of new breast…
Richard M. Scaife, Newspaper Publisher and Heritage Foundation Trustee, Dies at 82
Richard M. Scaife, philanthropist to conservative causes and publisher of Tribune-Review Publishing, Co., died Friday at the age of 82. Scaife, an early supporter of The Heritage Foundation and member of its Board of Trustees since 1985, was serving as vice chairman…
Former officer fought to end disability and return to work
We’ve all heard of people fighting to get on disability, but not off of it. A former Metro police officer, who lost his leg, fought to end his benefits. “I was hired in 1989, road Dixie Highway on 3rd shift…
Time to crack down on Social Security judges who ‘rubber stamp’ disability benefits
House Republicans signaled this week they will pressure the Social Security Administration to crack down on administrative law judges who appear to “rubber stamp” disability benefits for applicants who had been denied at a lower tier. In a letter to Acting SSA Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin,…
How to Deal With a Retirement Catastrophe
Aspiring retirees have many decades of retirement life they need to plan for. There are also a wide variety of things that could go wrong with your financial plan, ranging from poor investment returns to high inflation. How your investments will perform…
Medicare Rule Change Raises Stakes for Hospital Discharge Planning
When she presents information to hospitalists about the little-known revision to Medicare’s condition of participation for discharge planning by hospitals, most hospitalists have no idea what Amy Boutwell, MD, MPP, is talking about. Even hospitalists who are active in their…
Medicare laboratory payment reform threatens to eliminate market competition
The world changed substantially for regional and community clinical laboratories on Aprii 1, 2014. The President signed into law “‘The Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014,” containing the most significant Medicare payment reform of clinical laboratory services since creation of the…
The Medicare surtax vs. the kiddie tax
One of the most annoying parts of the latest round of estate tax changes is the 3.8 percent Medicare surtax, enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act (or ObamaCare) and taking effect last year. For trusts and estates, the 3.8 percent…