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More Evidence that Medicare Advantage are Cuts Hurting Seniors
Medicare Advantage payments for 2014 were cut by 6.5 percent – resulting in higher costs, reduced benefits, and fewer choices for seniors in the program. Read more… Notice: The “Read more…” link provided above connects readers to the full…
How Will Medicare Pull Back The Curtain On Pay For Doctors?
After successful legal challenges, Medicare will soon begin to release data about how much it pays doctors. The details remain unknown, but three recent projects offer clues. Don’t expect an app or website that will be easy for consumers to…
How to Squash 5 Retirement Fears
With baby boomers either retired or heading down the retirement path, retirement fears tend to creep in. Some retirees or soon-to-be retirees have nothing to fear about retirement, but others’ fears may be well-founded. Do you have realistic retirement fears? If your retirement…
Baby Boomers Reluctant to Retire; What About the Fed’s Retirement Thesis?
True to their “live to work” reputation, some baby boomers are digging in their heels at the workplace as they approach the traditional retirement age of 65. While the average age at which U.S. retirees say they retired has risen…
The Hidden Costs of a Minimum Wage Hike
When wages go up, so do taxes that employers must pay. As states, cities and counties — and potentially the federal government — increase minimum wage, it’s not just the hourly wage hike that business owners must budget for. Some payroll…
Health Care Consumes Over a Third of Social Security Checks
Out-of-pocket health care costs for seniors consumed over a third – 37 percent – of the average Social Security check in 2010, according to a new analysis by Social Security Works of data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.…
Adding Social Security + 401(k)
The big question for many people committed to retirement planning is this: Can Social Security and a 401(k) provide retirement security? The Employee Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI, a nonprofit research firm, studied the question and concluded that the answer is yes — as long…
STERN ADVICE-That retirement time bomb
The baby boom generation is moving into retirement with something no other generation has had: huge tax liabilities. With their savings concentrated in tax-deferred retirement accounts like 401(k)s or individual retirement accounts, many boomers will have to pay income taxes on…
Report shows biggest areas of confusion over Medicare
Medicare can be confusing in dozens of ways — take doughnut holes, Special Needs Plans, PDP coverage, late enrollment penalties and Medigap A through N. Now, a study released Wednesday by the Medicare Rights Center zeroes in on the three most…
Social Security Administration To Build Private Cloud
The Social Security Administration (SSA) wants to build an on-premises private cloud, and it is searching for software packages that would help the agency do a better job of using its existing infrastructure and automate processes that are currently done…