By Len Burman; Forbes ~ Jul 10, 2014
Pity House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp. He wants to rewrite the tax code in a serious way, but instead he’s spending his days trying to come up with imaginary revenue sources to pay for important spending priorities like rebuilding our crumbling highways. Tomorrow, his committee will consider a proposal to partially pay for topping up the highway trust fund with a cynical budget gimmick called “pension smoothing.”
By Mark Miller; Reuters ~ Jul 10, 2014
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The graying of the American homeowner is upon us. The question is: Will communities be ready for the challenges that come with that?
The number of households headed by someone age 70 or older will surge by 42 percent from 2015 to 2025, according to a report on the state of housing released last month by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, or JCHS (bit.ly/1kKwpkW).
By Elizabeth O’Brien; MarketWatch ~ Jul 10, 2014
Moving a parent into a care facility is often a wrenching decision for families. Despite the emotions involved, it’s important to remain clear-eyed when it comes to signing the contract. Otherwise, adult children could find themselves on the hook for much more than they bargained for.
Many older people moving into a nursing home or retirement community are experiencing cognitive decline. In legal terms, they no longer have the capacity to make financial or medical decisions for themselves. So a trusted person—usually an adult child—will sign the entrance contract on their behalf as power of attorney.
By Tess VandenDolder, InTheCapital – July 10, 2014
This month the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Social Security Disability Insurance, to discuss what to do about the fund that is on track to be depleted by 2017. And Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is stepping up as the Democratic voice leading the charge to see social security expanded.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal; The New York Times ~ Jul 05, 2014
ONE small consolation of our high-priced health care system — our $2.7 trillion collective medical bill — has been the notion that at least we get medical attention quickly.
Americans look down on national health systems like Canada’s and Britain’s because of their notorious waiting lists. In recent weeks, the Veterans Affairs hospitals have been pilloried for long patient wait times, with top officials losing their jobs.
Yet there is emerging evidence that lengthy waits to get a doctor’s appointment have become the norm in many parts of American medicine, particularly for general doctors but also for specialists. And that includes patients with private insurance as well as those with Medicaid or Medicare.
By Anna Gorman & Victoria Colliver; Kaiser Health News ~ Jul 03, 2014
This story also ran in the San Francisco Chronicle . It can be republished for free.
Scott Paul knew he needed to head to the emergency room on a recent Sunday after his foot became so painful he couldn’t walk. The one thing that gave him pause was the thought of having to wait several hours next to a bunch of sick people.
But his wife, Jeannette, remembered she’d seen Dignity Health television commercials featuring a woman sitting in a hospital waiting room and then cutting to the same woman sitting on her living room couch as words come up on the screen: “Wait for the ER from home.”
By Quentin Fottrell; MarketWatch ~ Jul 02, 2014
When visiting a doctor, psychologist or physical therapist, some patients think twice before forking over the quoted copay. Few people think of bartering in the doctor’s office, but those who do are snagging significant savings.
People have a motivation to negotiate: Some patients feel even sicker after they go to the doctor’s office and hear the cost.
The amount that comes from out-of-pocket expenses — including copays and deductibles — rose 40% to $2,649 in 2014 from last year and the percentage of out-of-pocket expenses as a total cost rose from 15.9% to 18.7%, according to a report by professional services firm Towers Watson.
By Sarah Reedy; Light Reading ~ Jul 01, 2014
Ericsson is in talks with both AT&T and Verizon Wireless about managing their wireless infrastructure, according to an executive who shared details with the Bloomberg news agency.
Jean-Claude Geha, head of Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)’s managed services business, tells Bloomberg the vendor is in discussions with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless about managed services, but he wasn’t clear what aspects of the network they were interested in turning over to the vendor.
By Anne Tergesen; MarketWatch ~ Jul 01, 2014
When deciding how to divide a portfolio between stocks and bonds, many investors simply subtract their age from 100 to determine what percentage to put into stocks, and invest the rest in bonds.
But new research indicates that before doing the math, it’s important to consider something many investors and financial advisers overlook: the value and riskiness of your other assets—specifically, any pension and Social Security benefits you stand to receive, your future employment income and your home equity.
By Ferdous Al-Faruque, The Hill – July 1, 2014
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed several new changes to how it pays for Medicare home health services, which the agency says will save it $58 million next year.
The agency is proposing to save money by toughening requirements to be eligible for home health services, setting a minimum requirement on home health agencies to prove their effectiveness and revising how much the CMS pays for certain services.