Hospitals have prioritized rescheduling patients who do not have COVID-19 but have conditions that may deteriorate if they do not get regular care. Patients receiving cancer treatment need to go to regularly scheduled appointments. Doctors are particularly concerned that patients who have heart or lung disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic conditions get back on a routine care schedule..Plan to compare your drug plan options during the fall Open Enrollment Period that starts October 15th and runs through December 7th. Chances are you will find a much lower-costing plan that will save you a bundle in 2014 if you switch plans..TSCL encourages its members and supporters to attend these events and to voice their concerns about important Social Security and Medicare issues like inadequate cost-of-living adjustments and skyrocketing prescription drug prices..The Senior Citizens League thanks the new cosponsors of H.R. 2212, S. 2387, H.R. 1205, and H.R. 190For more information about these and other bills that would improve the lives of older Americans, visit the Bill Tracking section of our website..Recently we asked for your stories and comments on how rising prescription drug costs impact you. The following story illustrates new administrative efforts by Medicare to "educate" beneficiaries about their options for less expensive prescription meds, by sending out letters listing lower cost medications. The question we need to ask our lawmakers is why is this necessary? Does the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services believe we are impoverishing ourselves by using more expensive drugs if a less expensive alternative was effective, to begin with? Unfortunately, sometimes the older, less expensive drugs don't work as well, and with metastatic cancer drugs, quality of life can be at stake. Our sincere thank you to Janice S. a retiree living in Illinois, for sharing the following..In our Sept. 26 Update, we told you about the new Drug Discount Card that President Trump had just announced would be available to some seniors. At that time, there were few details about the program because, as one White House official put it, the idea of a drug discount card was a "last-minute thing that is still being worked out.".According to another report in the Washington Post, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and "Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, are distancing themselves from the idea, each emphasizing that they were not consulted by the White House before the president's announcement, said three officials familiar with their thinking.".Support Grows for CPI-E Act.Beware of a nationwide utilitybill payment scam. Under the scam, a customer may be contacted in person, through fliers, social media or text messages. The scammers claim that President Obama will pay a person's utility bills through a new federal program.
