Latest News
Social Security Encourages Retirees To Use Website
Prospective retirees now have several easy options when it comes to applying for Social Security benefits. The beginning of the year is a busy time for local Social Security offices. Yet, they are providing applications through their website for retirees…
Scam Targets Social Security Recipients
Senior citizens are targeted by a new scam: fraudulent operators who pretend to be calling about Medicare, Social Security, or supplemental insurance, but whose actual purpose is to trick seniors into disclosing their private financial information. Disclosure of such information…
Staff Instructions On Priority To 100% Disabled Vets
Social Security has released staff instructions on its plan to give priority in processing to the disability claims of veterans who have been awarded 100% permanent and total compensation by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Am I reading this right that…
What you need to know about myRA retirement accounts
Half of all workers don’t have an employer-sponsored plan to save for retirement. That’s one of the reasons why President Barack Obama announced in the State of the Union address that the treasury department will soon be offering a new…
CMS Proposes Reductions to Medicare Advantage Payments
The Obama administration on Friday proposed reductions to payments for Medicare Advantage plans in 2015, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 2/21). The proposed cuts were detailed in a 148-page assessment of cost factors for MA plans for 2015, which noted multiple variables…
Pundits Bemoan Failure to Cut Social Security
Last week the White House announced that it was–at least for now–giving up on a cut in Social Security benefits known as “chained CPI.” This news made many in the elite media upset that Washington wasn’t coming together to do something so…
Study: Data analysis may combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud
Data analysis can provide businesses with key information to make improvements and mitigate risk, and it may even be able to help combat Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The University of Cincinnati recently released a report that analyzed the effect of fraud-fighting…
Obama drops Social Security cut
Yielding to pressure from congressional Democrats, President Obama is abandoning a proposed cut to Social Security benefits in his election-year budget. The president’s budget request for fiscal 2015, which is due out March 4, will not call for a switch to…
Obama’s Retirement Cap Could Hit Middle Class
President Obama wants to limit America’s retirement benefits. In his State of the Union address, Obama indicated he will include in his 2015 budget proposal in March plans to limit how much Americans can put in tax-deferred retirement plans including their…
Cook lobbying to stop closure
Rep. Paul Cook is among a growing contingent of officials and locals opposing a plan to close the Barstow Social Security office and consolidate it with the Victorville office. Cook, R-Apple Valley, wrote a letter opposing the move last month to…