Social Security & Medicare
Benefit changes, claiming strategies, eligibility rules, Medicare enrollment, Part D updates, and policy changes affecting retirees.
Latest in Social Security & Medicare
Washington says its SNAP recipients only face the three-months-in-36 time limit after a screening at their next eligibility review, not on a fixed date
Washington has set no cutoff date for the federal rule that limits some SNAP recipients to three months of benefits in any 36. The state’s...
SNAP households in 14 Florida Panhandle and Big Bend counties have until October 19 to ask the state to replace food lost to Hurricane Isaias
A Florida household on SNAP that lost food to Hurricane Isaias can ask the state to replace it, but only if the home is in...
SNAP households in Hawaii County, Maui County and one Oahu ZIP code have until October 15 to report food destroyed by Hurricane Nolo and get up to a month’s benefits back
Power outages tied to Hurricane Nolo began across parts of Hawaii on September 25, and a wildfire on Maui the next day made matters worse....
USDA’s SNAP food-restriction waivers each run two years, so the drink and candy bans five states target for November 1 would hold into 2028
Every SNAP food-restriction waiver USDA has approved for soda and candy limits runs for two years, so the five states set to start at the...
VCU Health goes out of network with Anthem’s Medicare Advantage HMO-POS, PPO and chronic-condition plans on January 1, while Anthem’s dual special needs plan stays in
VCU Health goes out of network with three kinds of Anthem Medicare Advantage plan on January 1, 2027: the HMO-POS, the PPO and the chronic-condition...
Medicare will not give members a new special enrollment period when their hospital leaves the plan network, after regulators dropped that proposal from the 2027 final rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services decided against creating a new special enrollment period for Medicare Advantage members whose doctor or hospital leaves their...
CHRISTUS Medicare Advantage members who go back to Original Medicare have until March 4, 2027 to buy a Medigap policy with no health questions, the plan tells them
CHRISTUS Health Plan is ending three Medicare Advantage plans on December 31, 2026, and members who respond by going back to Original Medicare have a...
Over 11,000 Social Security beneficiaries asked the agency to explain an overpayment, and its watchdog found 79 of 125 sampled requests were handled incorrectly
Social Security’s own inspector general found that the agency mishandled 79 of 125 sampled requests from beneficiaries who asked it to explain an overpayment. The...
About 22% of stand-alone Medicare drug plan members are in four-star contracts for 2027, up from 2%
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) says about 22% of people in stand-alone Medicare drug plans will be in contracts rated four stars...
Maryland’s Medicare Advantage choices fall from 63 plans to 47 in 2027
Maryland will have 47 Medicare Advantage plans on offer for 2027, down from 63 this year, according to the state fact sheet the Centers for...
People with full Medicaid and QMB pay no more than $4.90 per covered drug in 2027
Medicare.gov’s 2027 Extra Help page says people who have full Medicaid coverage and are in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program, known as QMB, will pay...
Medicare still publishes only 2026 premiums three days before enrollment opens
Medicare’s own cost page still lists only 2026 amounts, three days before Open Enrollment for 2027 coverage begins on Thursday, October 15. The standard Part...
Congress cleared a bill that would rename Social Security’s claiming ages, and SSA would have until the later of January 1, 2027 or a year after signing to relabel its notices
Congress has passed a bill that would retire the phrases early eligibility age, full retirement age and delayed retirement credit from Social Security’s letters and...
A surviving spouse can claim at 60 at 71.5% of the late worker’s benefit, or wait for 100%, and Social Security never pays two benefits together
Social Security lets a surviving spouse start a survivor benefit at age 60, but the first check is only 71.5% of what the late worker...
An inspector general report projects 17,170 disabled beneficiaries could have been entitled to about $124.7 million in higher retirement benefits, with roughly $84 million now unpayable
Social Security’s inspector general projects that 17,170 disabled beneficiaries could have been entitled to about $124.7 million in higher retirement benefits that the agency never...
Medicare members whose plan is not renewed for 2027 can switch from December 8 to the last day of February, a window that outlasts the December 7 enrollment deadline
A Medicare plan that is not renewed for 2027 hands its members a switching window that opens December 8 and runs through the last day...
Social Security’s 2027 increase turns on one more reading: the September consumer price index, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the morning of October 14
Three monthly readings of an inflation index set Social Security’s 2027 raise, and the last one arrives at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, October 14,...
Social Security is appealing a judgment that ordered it to recalculate and back-pay children of early retirees to May 10, 2024, with the next brief in the appeal due October 14
Social Security is appealing a federal judgment that ordered it to recalculate the benefits of children whose parents claimed retirement early and to pay the...
Veterans Day falls on November’s second Wednesday, so Social Security’s own holiday rule pays beneficiaries born on the 1st through the 10th who filed in May 1997 or later on Tuesday, November 10
Social Security beneficiaries born on the 1st through the 10th of a month are due to be paid on Tuesday, November 10, one day ahead...
Some New York Medicaid adults who apply before Jan. 1 or renew before March 1, 2027 get 12 months of coverage if eligible, state and Westchester County say
New York is giving some Medicaid adults a full year of coverage before a new six-month renewal cycle begins, if the application comes before Jan....