Washington, DC) – If the annual Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) did a better job of keeping pace with Medicare Part B premiums, benefits over the past decade would be 42 percent higher in 2022, according ...
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Hearing on Prescription Drug Pricing this Week
The Oversight and Reform Committee of the House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this week to reveal findings in the panel’s three-year investigation into pharmaceutical pricing and business practices. The hear ...
Sen. Sanders Asks President to Reduce Medicare Premium Hike
According to Bloomberg News, “Sen. Bernie Sanders is asking the White House to cut back a big Medicare premium hike set to take effect in weeks and tied to a pricey Alzheimer's drug whose benefits have been widely questi ...
Cuts in Medicare Payments to Providers to be Voted on
The House of Representatives may take up legislation this week that would prevent billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare payments to health care providers. Those cuts will take place next year unless Congress votes to s ...
Lowering Drug Prices Still Waits for Action in Senate
Now that the government will be open for a while, the Senate still has major issues to deal with and very little time to do it. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said in a letter to other Senator ...
Congress Punts Once Again
Late last week Congress dealt with funding the federal government for fiscal year 2022, which began last October 1, in the way we have been predicting: they punted. They managed to agree on a bill to keep funding the ...
Benefit Bulletin: December 2021
Availability of Caregiving Help Falls, Costs of In-Home Care Climbs By Rick Delaney, TSCL Chairman The coronavirus has caused many families to rethink plans for long term care as the pandemic spread through nursing ...
More Proof Congressional Action is Needed to Lower Drug Prices
According to a report in Stat News last week, during 2020, drug makers raised prices on seven widely used medicines by substantial amounts without any new clinical evidence to justify the increases, forcing patients and ...
Bill to Stop Cuts in Medicare Payments to Doctors is Introduced
Last week there was some refreshing proof that Congress can still, on occasion, work together in a bi-partisan manner. Representatives Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-Ind.) and Ami Bera, M.D. (D-Calif.) announced the introduc ...
On to the Senate
The legislation dealing with prescription drug prices now moves to the Senate for action. Everyone expects there will be changes to it. The real questions are how many changes will be made, what kinds of changes will the ...