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Law, healthier beneficiaries helping trim Medicare costs
Health care spending per Medicare recipient will slow in the future, because of lower payments to doctors, fewer services per beneficiary and a lower average age of beneficiary, according to a February monthly budget review by the Congressional Budget Office. “Under…
Those Pesky Facts in the War on Poverty
Facts and evidence can be a mixed bag. There are facts and evidence that sometimes reinforce and other times dispute the thoughts, beliefs and ideology that each of us hold. We should all be open to hearing facts and evidence…
Medicare Officials Back Away From Changes To Prescription Drug Plan
Facing heavy bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill as well as from patient groups, businesses, insurers and others, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Monday it did not plan to move ahead “at this time” with several proposed changes to the Medicare…
How Social Security Trust Funds Will Change Private Retirement Income
It can be difficult to completely avoid a $5 trillion elephant in the middle of one’s own living room. In an ironic twist, millions of people who are investing for retirement specifically to escape from dependence on Social Security may find…
Patient status can impact payment for transitional care
Understanding health care today is not easy. Trying to understand the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ patient status regulations is even more confusing. The term patient status indicates whether you are an inpatient or an outpatient. CMS provide a range…
People With Disabilities Impetus For New Teaching Hotel
Construction is set to begin on a first-of-its-kind hotel where teaching and employing people with disabilities will be just as important as accommodating overnight guests. At least 20 percent of workers at the 150-room Courtyard by Marriott being built in Muncie,…
How Marital Status Affects Retirement Benefits
Married couples are eligible for a variety of retirement benefits that single people are not. A recent Government Accountability Office report examined how declining marriage rates affect how prepared couples and singles are for retirement. Here’s a look at how…
Tester introduces hospital bill: Aims to clarify rural area requirements
Montana’s senior senator has co-sponsored a bill that supporters say would end a confusing requirement for rural hospitals. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, introduced the Critical Access Hospital Relief Act with co-sponsor, Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, late in February. The…
How to Keep Lengthening Life Expectancies from Broadening our Budget Deficit?
Social security and Medicare are often treated collectively as something of a third rail in politics (though there is admittedly no shortage of those). However, as American life expectancy has increased and as Baby Boomers are now eligible for early…
Hanged for a Lamb
President Obama’s new budget includes a very mild provision to increase tax benefits for low- and moderate-income working people without children. The provision, the Earned Income Tax Credit, is already available to workers with children. Obama proposes to pay for…