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Medicare Fee Schedule Update
In case you missed it, on December 19, President Obama signed into law legislation that postpones a 21.2% cut in the Medicare physician payment conversion factor for two months. The cut, which had been scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2010, now will be delayed until March 1. Legislation has been proposed, H.R. 3961, that could make this postponement permanent and even change the way the physician payment schedule is calculated. H.R. 3961 passed the House on November 19, 2009 and the bill now awaits the pleasure of the Senate.
Tech Stuff.
January 12th was the monthly Microsoft Patch Tuesday. My Windows XP machines downloaded 3 updates (2 if you don’t use MS Outlook). Don’t forget to perform you monthly check by having your computer set to (at least) remind you there are updates. If you are not sure you have the latest updates, go to the Microsoft Update website by opening your Start Menu, then All Programs and you should see either “Windows Update” or “Microsoft Update” near the top of your programs list.
Adobe has released an update to it’s Acrobat reader to version 9.3. This fixes some security holes in this popular PDF reader. If you go to the Adobe website to do the download, be sure to UNCHECK the “Free McAfee Security Scan” option just above the Download button on the Reader page.
While you are at the Adobe website you may want to download the most recent Adobe Flash player version. Flash is frequently installed on your computer and works with your Internet browser to show videos and other interactive content. Microsoft has released an advisory that there are security issues with version 6 of the flash player (which is a very old version) and Internet Explorer.
Fact Checking.
I use several fact checking websites when I receive things that appear to be less than truthful or highly inflammatory. These are the old standby Snopes, Politifact, and FactCheck. I’ve found these three to be very reliable and would encourage everyone to check one or more of these when they receive items that may seem to stretch the truth. And now, for those who live in Texas (or those wanna-be Texans) there’s a new one, Politifact-Texas.
I use a couple of different websites to keep track of legislation. The principal one is the Library of Congress’s “Thomas” website. This site allows you to search any number of ways for legislation, check the Congressional Record and check on other activities of Congress. An easier site to use is Govtrack which is a private website that has links to Thomas but is a bit easier to search. For reports and analyses on legislation, you might want to check the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) website. There’s a search box in the upper right hand corner but it’s not easy to narrow the search.
Who Do You Trust?
Maybe not your favorite Political Action Committee! A recent article in the Washington Post is about how a conservative website has (apparently) been faxing personal information of its donors to senators and congresspeoples. Here are the introductory paragraphs – click HERE to read more.
“Credit card numbers and other personal information about more than a hundred contributors to a conservative Web site unexpectedly showed up by fax at a Democratic lawmaker’s office.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said over recent weeks his office has received 139 faxes from ExposeObama.com, a Web site run by the National Campaign Fund, a political action committee. The faxes included the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, credit card information and employment information of donors.”
Military Items
COL (Ret) Bob Fechner passed away on 14 January 2010 in a hospice near his home in Charlotte, NC. Julie and their 2 daughters were with him.
Things to Read?
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) those infamous analyzers of almost everything Congress does has recently put out a 10-page document titled the “The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax” which is a discussion on the AMT and its impacts. This is important since Congress has apparently failed to extend some temporary changes they made in previous years and the AMT just might affect more people when they do their 2010 taxes. You can download the document in Adobe PDF format HERE.
One of the reports listed in the “Recent Publications” portion of the CBO homepage is entitled “Estimated Premiums for ‘Bronze’ Coverage under the (Senate’s) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” It’s a short, 3 page, read and discusses the estimated premiums in 2016 for the minimum coverage allowed by the Senate bill.
From the Library of Congress website there’s a “…brief discussion…” (I guess 67 pages is brief for a Congressional document) titled “How Our Laws Are Made.” I’ve not yet read this but the person who sent the link to me said that it was a very interesting read and provided him with a much better understanding of the federal legislative process (if process is the correct term).
In addition to the CBO there’s the CRS (no, it does not stand for Can’t Remember Shit), the Congressional Research Service. Their reports are not as accessible as those of the CBO but they can occasionally be found floating around. If you are currently receiving Social Security and paying Medicare premiums or you are coming close to being there, you might want to read their report on what the impact of the first ever “No COLA” year has on Medicare premiums. You should be able to get to is via THIS LINK (it should download a PDF of the report).
The Last Word
Know Your Opponent. Much has been written about the Islamist or Arab view of the world. I’ve served short periods in the Middle East and had the opportunity to (briefly) work with Arabs. This was many years before the current world situation. I formed my own personal opinions of their ‘world view’ at that time which, admittedly, has colored my opinions today as I’ve learned more and seen the evolution of our relationship with them. Suffice it to say, I don’t think, even after all this time, that we know our opponent very well. That said, here’s a view, written in 2006 in a personal blog, that is at least worth reading. You can then take it or leave it or just ponder it for a while. Read “Observations on Arabs.”
There’s some other pithy things I want to pontificate about but I’ve got to pack and head to Maryland for the birth of grandchild #3 so it will have to wait for another time.
But…in closing, don’t forget to communicate with your congressperson eloquently and often about things you like, or don’t like, about the way things are going. I do although one does not answer and the other (Democrat) does answer with pat answers.
And…(this really is the last item) if you current or retired military, be sure to keep track of the healthcare ‘reform’ bill and what might happen on your healthcare benefits. Don’t fall prey to all the garbage that’s going around the internet about your benefits being slashed as most are shameless exaggerations but some come close to the mark. You may want to check out the latest in the White House Blog regarding TRICARE – although keep in mind this is the party line (is this a bad pun?). Remember, on this bill nothing is final until all the negotiations are completed and, unfortunately, nothing is available to read yet.
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Disclaimers
This newsletter and blog is solely for the enjoyment of its readers. There is no warranty or guarantee stated or implied in the content by the author. None of the information contained in this newsletter or on the blog is to be considered as legal or financial advice as the author is neither a lawyer or financial advisor. It is incumbent on the reader to see competent advice if they see an item that is of interest. In so far as it is possible to determine the material presented is correct but has not necessarily been fully researched or verified; here’s the bottom line – you use it at your own risk. The author is not liable for any consequences that results from actions taken by the reader relative to the contents of this newsletter or blog. Products mentioned in this newsletter and associated blog have NOT been provided by a manufacturer or reseller and anything remotely resembling a review is actually just a description of personal experience or a reference to comments made by others, with citations as available. In other words, no compensation has been provided for product comments. Wherever possible the source of the information for a particular article is indicated as a point of reference.
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