Month: April 2010

National Park Week – Seeing the Country on a MedicareCard.com Budget

by

Now that it looks as if warm weather is really here, some of my friends have started to gather ideas for activities to do during the summer. Some of the suggestions are right up my alley: baseball games (check), weekend down the shore (say no more), backyard barbeques (sold).

Medicare Card – Traditional ‘Heel Stick’ Test Is Not an Effective Screening Tool for CMV in Newborns

by

A routine screening test for several metabolic and genetic disorders in newborns, the heel-stick procedure, is not effective in screening for cytomegalovirus (CMV)

Information to Over 3 Million Disability Applicants Each Year – Medicare Card, Social Security to Provide Helpful Health Care

by

Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the agency is providing helpful health care information and website links to the more than three million individuals who apply each year for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. The website links take disability applicants to two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) websites – www.healthfinder.gov where they will find information and tools to help them better understand and cope with their conditions; and www.healthfinder.gov/rxdrug where they may be able to get help paying for prescription drugs.

Medicare Freedom – Create Art for Federal Buildings

by

It took almost 70 years, but the Department of the Interior (DOI) headquarters recently unveiled murals taken from Ansel Adams’ portraits. This is the same Ansel Adams who’s arguably the greatest nature photographer of all time.

Medicare Payments Late? The USPS Five-Day Mail Delivery Proposal

by

This week, the United States Postal Service will seek an opinion from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission on its plan to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. While Congress has to approve the change, this is a first step towards five-day mail delivery service.

Medicare Decisions Can Provide Healthier School Lunches

by

The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches served at my high school were epic. Using THREE slices of white bread with peanut butter spread on both the top and bottom, it was like a little slice of heaven at 11:30am. Looking back, it’s a marvel that I made it out of there alive.

Medicare – Social Security Adds 38 New Compassionate Allowance Conditions

by

Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency is adding 38 more conditions to its list of Compassionate Allowances. This is the first expansion since the original list of 50 conditions – 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers – was announced in October 2008. The new conditions range from adult brain disorders to rare diseases that primarily affect children. The complete list of the new Compassionate Allowance conditions is attached.

Social Security Helps States with Mounting Disability Claims

by

Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s first Extended Service Team (EST) is open for business in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock EST will make disability decisions for state Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) that are most adversely affected by the flood of new initial disability claims resulting from the economic downturn and from counterproductive furloughs of employees at the state level. Later this year, Social Security will open additional ESTs in Madison, Mississippi; Roanoke, Virginia; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ESTs are in states that have a history of high quality and productivity, as well as the capacity to hire and train significant numbers of additional employees.

“The strategy behind ESTs builds on our success with National Hearing Centers, where cases are handled electronically from all over the country,” Commissioner Astrue said. “These centralized units have reduced the hearings backlog and improved processing times at some of the hardest-hit hearing offices. This approach clearly works and extending it in this way can help us meet the challenge of unprecedented growth in our disability workloads.”

Social Security expects to receive more than 3.3 million applications for disability benefits this fiscal year (FY), about 700,000 more than in FY 2008. In addition, more than a dozen states are furloughing federally-funded state workers who make disability decisions for Social Security. The combination of increased workloads and state furloughs has resulted in a growing backlog of initial disability applications in state DDSs.

“More Americans than ever are turning to us for help,” said Commissioner Astrue. “I am grateful that Governor Beebe bucked the trend and recognized the value of more of our federally-funded jobs in his state. The opening of the Arkansas EST and our other planned expansions in Mississippi, Virginia, and Oklahoma will significantly benefit disabled workers and their families as well as create new job opportunities to these states during difficult economic times.”

Equal Access for the Disabled – Finding Medicare Help

by

There are an estimated 40 million people with disabilities in our country. The rest of us are temporarily abled, as they say. It’s only a matter of time until we have an injury or illness that will cause us to experience some sort of disability.

The Cast of The Patty Duke Show Reunites to Tell Americans About New Online Medicare Application

by

Commissioner of Social Security, today joined award-winning actress Patty Duke and the cast of her hit 1960s sitcom, The Patty Duke Show, to unveil Social Security’s newest online service – an application for Medicare benefits. This new online application, which takes less than 10 minutes to complete, is for people reaching the Medicare eligibility age of 65 who want to delay filing for Social Security retirement benefits. Currently about a half million Americans enroll in Medicare each year without applying for monthly benefits.

Social Security Releases Open Government Plan – Medicare Card Information

by

Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency has released its Open Government plan. The plan, available at www.socialsecurity.gov/open, reflects the agency’s commitment to increase transparency, expand opportunities for citizen participation and collaboration, and make open government sustainable at Social Security.

So Long From GovGab – MedicareCard.com Continues On

by

After more than two and half years of sharing all sorts of government information with you, I’m sorry to say that this will be GovGab’s last post. We’re all going to be sad to see GovGab go, but we hope you’ll continue to find all the government information you need through our websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.