Medical Services Pharmacies Diabetic Supplies"For this group of Medicare beneficiaries, this will also be the largest Medicare Part B increase in five years after premiums remained relatively flat since 2013," says Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare Policy Analyst for The Senior Citizens League. The jump in premiums is due to a special provision of law known as "hold harmless," which protected millions of Social Security recipients from reductions to their Social Security benefits in 2016 and 2017, when then the annual - cost - of - living adjustments were zero and just 0.3 percent, respectively..In an ideal world, prior authorization is supposed to deter patients from receiving care that is not truly medically necessary, thus reducing costs for insurers and out-of-pocket costs of enrollees. But prior authorization is sometimes misused to create barriers to getting care, or to even deny medically necessary care. Regardless of how prior authorization is used, it creates extra administrative hassles for physicians when they have to file the documentation to obtain the authorization..On Monday, the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs released their annual reports on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. As expected, the Trustees found that both programs currently face significant but manageable financial challenges. … Continued
State Indicator Overweightobese ChildrenIn addition, one new cosponsor Sen. Christopher Murphy signed on to the Social Security Fairness Act this week, bringing the total up to fourteen in the Senate. If signed into law, S. 896 would repeal two provisions of the Social Security Act that unfairly reduce the earned benefits of millions of state and local government employees each year. TSCL believes that the two provisions the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset must be repealed before the end of this year so that dedicated public servants receive the retirement security they have earned..It is far easier for physicians than hospitals to opt out of taking Medicare patients. Most hospitals must accept them since they rely on Medicare payments to fund inpatient stays, doctor training and other functions..The costs don't stop at ,350. Unlike other types of health insurance, there is no out-of-pocket annual maximum for beneficiaries enrolled in Part D. After spending the ,350 in drug costs, Part D plan enrollees pay the greater of 5% co-insurance or copays of .60 for generics and .95 for brand or non-preferred brand drugs. For someone taking high cost specialty drugs, the 5% coinsurance could still be in the hundreds of dollars and, would continue for each refill until the end of the year. … Continued