By Equity Research; Zacks ~ Apr 10, 2014

With the upsurge in demand for high speed Internet, AT&T Inc. (T – Analyst Report) remains focused on tapping potential opportunities by expanding its Fiber networks. The company is reportedly expanding its Fiber Optic network services in six additional cities in North Carolina. Aside from Google Inc. , AT&T is another large carrier with plans for high speed Internet expansion in North Carolina.

The company boasts the best Internet speeds in the industry as it is the only U.S. carrier that provides 4G network through both Long Term Evolution (LTE) and High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technologies. As a part of its project VIP initiative, AT&T is seeking to expand its fiber network to 1 million additional customer locations by 2015.

This project underlines the company’s efforts to meet the growing demand for high-speed Internet. We believe that this investment program will provide AT&T with a high-potential growth platform for revenues and earnings.

By Peter Whoriskey, Dan Keating and Lena H. Sun, Washington Post – Apr 9, 2014

An analysis of government data released Wednesday shows that the cost of drugs administered by doctors accounts for a growing piece of Medicare’s spending and varies widely from region to region in the United States, raising questions about whether some physicians may be misusing the pharmaceuticals.

Most of the 4,000 doctors who received at least $1 million from Medicare in 2012 billed mainly for giving patients injections, infusions and other drug treatments, those records

The data, an unprecedented trove of millions of billing records from Medicare — as well as interviews with doctors — highlight the role of pharmaceuticals in the nation’s staggering health-care costs.

Of $64 billion Medicare paid to doctors in 2012, $8.6 billion was used to cover drugs, an amount that has been rising for years.

Yet Medicare bureaucrats seeking to rein in drug costs have been stymied by rules that forbid the government to negotiate lower prices. In 2010, they even lost the ability to mandate, when two equivalent drugs are available, that physicians be paid only for the cheapest.

By Tom Murphy, Associated Press – Apr 8, 2014

The government has raised its payment estimate for Medicare Advantage plans months ahead of a busy election season during which cuts to the program promise to be a key focus for politicians and voters.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday that 2015 payments to the plans should increase less than 1 percent overall. That compares to a drop of nearly 2 percent that the government forecast in February.

Analysts expect actual funding to fall when many other variables are considered. But the drop shouldn’t be as steep as they initially forecast.

This might lead to fewer changes for the plans, which serve nearly
16 million people, or about 30 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries. The government has squeezed rates for the past few years in part to help fund the health care overhaul. Insurers that run the plans say they’ve had to trim benefits, drop doctors and leave markets as a result.

By Elana Gordon, WHYY; Kaiser Health News ~ Apr 08, 2014

Researchers posing as nonelderly adult patients made nearly 13,000 calls to primary care practices across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and eight other states between fall 2012 and spring of last year.

What they found may provide some comfort amid growing concerns of doctor hortages, especially as more people gain coverage through the Affordable Care Act, potentially straining the health system.

Dr. Karin Rhodes, from the University of Pennsylvania and a lead author on the study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, says when researchers said they had
insurance, they were able to make an appointment about 85 percent of the time —
on the first try, no less.

By Caroline Humer; Reuters ~ Apr 08, 2014

(Reuters) – U.S. health insurers said on Tuesday they still expected cuts in government
reimbursements for privately managed Medicare health plans for the elderly next
year even after the Obama administration rolled back the steepest reductions.

The government agency that oversees Medicare said late on Monday that on average,
reimbursements to insurers for private Medicare plans would rise 0.4 percent, reversing what it said was a proposed cut of 1.9 percent.

The insurance industry and advocates for the elderly had lobbied against the cuts, which were first proposed in February, saying they would reduce benefits for older
people.

By David Morgan; Reuters ~ Apr 08, 2014

The U.S. administration has not determined whether it has legal authority to delay Obamacare’s individual mandate, which requires most Americans to enroll in health insurance or pay a tax penalty, a senior Treasury official said on Tuesday.

Mark Iwry, senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, told U.S. lawmakers the administration sees no reason for delay given that the law allows for exemptions and provides financial assistance for those unable to afford health coverage on their own.

He said the provision also underpins reforms that protect sick people from iscriminatory market practices. “If we don’t believe that it is appropriate to be delaying that provision … then we don’t reach the question of whether we have legal authority,” Iwry said in testimony before the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee’s Health subcommittee.

By Matthew Heimer; MarketWatch ~ Apr 07, 2014

If you have a will (and we hope you do), chances are you’ve spent long hours carefully considering exactly how your estate should be distributed among your children or other
heirs. But if you have a 401(k) or an IRA, chances are you spent about five
seconds deciding who your beneficiary should be – and what’s more, you’re likely
to have done this 10, 20 or even 30 years ago.

For many families that lose a loved one, this situation spells trouble – because if the two
documents conflict, it’s the beneficiary designation, not the will, that determines who gets the deceased person’s account assets. Conflicts like these have become a thornier issue as more people concentrate more of their wealth in their retirement-savings plans, and they’re the subject of a new study by Stewart Sterk and Melanie B. Leslie of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, published in the most recent issue of the New York University Law Review.

By Kate Rogers; Fox Business ~ Apr 07, 2014

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is warning consumers that no one is safe from identity fraud. And he should know: He’s a victim.

With less than two weeks until the tax filing deadline, the nation’s top law-enforcement officer warned filers to protect themselves from having their tax return fraudulently
filed or stolen.

In his weekly video message, Holder reminded the public that tax fraud is no longer a “white collar” crime, and that the criminals range from tax return preparers to identity
brokers and even gang members. The situation, he warned, becomes an “increasingly urgent problem” during tax-filing season.

By Andrea Coombes; The Wall Street Journal ~ Apr 06, 2014

If you are like many Americans, you have a variety of investment and retirement accounts. When it comes time to live on that money, how do you decide which ones to tap first?

The goal is to maximize your ability to generate income throughout retirement while keeping your tax burden low. That may not be easy, however, given that many savers have money stashed in a variety of accounts, all with different tax implications,
including tax-deferred 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts, after-tax
Roth IRAs and taxable investment accounts.

Adding to the complexity, retirees must decide when to claim Social Security. That, in turn affects how much they need to pull from savings.

In the end, the financially smartest choice may not be immediately obvious—or easy to
accept.

By Robert Powell; MarketWatch ~ Apr 05, 2014

When building retirement-income portfolio, advisers tend to fall into one of two camps.
There’s the save-the-principal-and-live-off-the-income camp. And there’s the income-is-income camp. Which should you choose? And how can you avoid making
mistakes with your retirement-income portfolio?

Well, to be fair, that depends on many factors: How much you have set aside in your nest egg? What sort of income your pensions, including Social Security, will provide? And what sort of income might you might earn from employment while in your 60s and 70s. It also depends on your lifestyle, and how much income you need to support the
retirement you desire.