Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
A federal audit found Social Security withheld benefits before appeal rights had expired, among errors in 75 percent of sampled cases
Seventy-five percent of the administrative-sanction cases sampled by the Social Security Administration’s inspector general contained errors, including instances where the agency withheld benefits before a...
An SSI applicant paying a relative full market rent keeps the benefit
On August 31, 2026, the Social Security Administration retired a policy that had applied only to Supplemental Security Income recipients in three states, after concluding...
Social Security says it will finish moving every beneficiary off paper checks this year
By the end of 2026, the Social Security Administration says it will finish moving every remaining beneficiary off paper checks, closing out an electronic-payment switch...
A new Social Security disability ruling for young adults takes effect October 1, replacing the 2011 version
A rewritten Social Security disability standard for young adults takes effect October 1, 2026, formally rescinding the rule the agency has used since 2011. Social...
Unresolved SSI earnings alerts sat an average of 733 days, and $664 million can no longer be recovered
A Social Security Administration watchdog review found that unresolved Supplemental Security Income earnings alerts sat pending for an average of 733 days before anyone closed...
Medicare’s annual election period opens October 15, but a member whose plan is dropped can switch into February
Medicare’s annual Open Enrollment Period begins October 15 and runs through December 7, the single stretch each year when enrollees can join, switch, or drop...
Federal auditors estimate $177.8 million in Medicare Advantage overpayments at Humana and UnitedHealthcare, and both refuse to repay
Federal auditors have concluded that Humana and UnitedHealthcare together collected an estimated $177.8 million in improper Medicare Advantage payments across just two of their contracts,...
Social Security withholds half a retirement check by default to claw back an overpayment, while SSI stays at 10 percent
Since April 25, 2025, Social Security has withheld half of a beneficiary’s monthly retirement, survivor or disability payment by default whenever the agency determines it...
Social Security paid about $1 billion to 333,800 SSI recipients who were not eligible, and December is the last month it can recover any of it
About $1 billion in Supplemental Security Income benefits went to roughly 333,800 people who were not eligible to receive it, according to a September 15,...
Medicare’s payments to Advantage insurers rise 4.4 percent next year even as plans disappear
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized the growth rate behind Medicare Advantage’s 2027 payments to insurers on April 6, closing a months-long fight...
Extra Help caps a brand-name prescription at $14.40 next year, then drops the cost to nothing
Two numbers will define what a low-income Medicare beneficiary pays for a covered prescription in 2027: up to $5.80 for a generic drug and up...
One of the programs that pays a Medicare Part B premium must be applied for again every year
Three federal programs pay a Medicare beneficiary’s Part B premium, and two of them, once granted, continue without the enrollee doing anything further beyond staying...
Stand-alone Medicare drug plans lose the federal subsidy that held premiums down this year
The federal government is stepping back from a deliberate, two-year effort to keep Medicare Part D premiums from swinging under the redesigned drug benefit. The...
Members of a Medicare plan rated under three stars for three years can switch out at any time
A Medicare Advantage or Part D plan that scores below three stars in Medicare’s quality ratings for three consecutive years loses the leverage that normally...
People whose Medicare plan is not renewed get until the end of February to pick a new one
Each fall the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services declines to renew a batch of Medicare Advantage, Medicare drug and Medicare Cost Plan contracts, and...
A federal data match is now being used to find seniors who qualify for help with drug costs
A Social Security Administration notice published in the Federal Register on August 7, 2026 confirmed a renewed data-sharing arrangement with the Office of Personnel Management...
The page tracking Social Security Fairness Act payments has not been updated since July 2025
The Social Security Administration’s dedicated tracking page for the Social Security Fairness Act still shows the same numbers it posted more than a year ago:...
Social Security’s fast-track disability list now covers 314 conditions
Social Security’s list of conditions serious enough to bypass the disability program’s usual multi-step review now stands at 314, expanded in August when the agency...
Rent paid at or above Social Security’s benchmark does not reduce an SSI check
The Social Security Administration closed a 36-year-old legal file on August 31, 2026, rescinding Acquiescence Ruling 90-2(2), the directive that once controlled how reduced rent...
Social Security is raising the fee to copy a paper claims file to $151 on October 1
Social Security is lifting the price to copy a paper case file from $122 to $151 for any request the agency receives on or after...