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Happy Holidays from MDBCN!

Dec 21, 2023

Below is an illustration of the fact that tastes may change but some sentiments remain the same. This mouse and lobster combination was a genuine Christmas card from the 1880s when the concept of the card was yet inchoate. There’s no current understanding now why the...

Change of Heart: EID Eligibility Expansion Confirmed

Dec 14, 2023

In June 2022 we delightedly reported the scrapping of income and resource limits for the hugely popular Medicaid Buy-in program and work incentive Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID). Eight short months later we learned that the tight-fisted hands at the...

Drug Deal: Expansion of Medicare Part D’s Full Low Income Subsidy Eligibility

Dec 8, 2023

A provision of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act is due to come into being effective January 1, 2024, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently put out a reminder. From next year there will no longer be a Partial Extra Help category for Part D...

Grave Concerns: CDC Publishes Latest Life Expectancy Data

Dec 1, 2023

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published its findings on life expectancy in the USA for the year 2022. The figures show an increase on the previous year, but still remain low compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and...

A Salute: How Social Security Aids Veterans

Nov 16, 2023

On November 11 we’ll commemorate Veterans Day and Social Security has chosen to remind us of the role it can play in aiding veterans with disabilities. Those who served in the military and who now have a disability are entitled to VA (Veterans Affairs) Disability...

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SSA Reveals Service Plan during the Federal Government Shutdown

Social Security has issued a statement on its Advocates webpage highlighting the level of its availability during the government shutdown which went into effect today, October 1. Crucially, all SSI and SSDI payments will continue without change and on the same payment...

Oscillate Wildly: Changes to SSDI Overpayment Recovery Rates

It may have escaped your attention, as it did this writer’s, that on August 29 this year Social Security issued Emergency Message 25029 REV. Emergency Messages are the agency’s method of notifying every office of the new protocols to follow. This one’s purpose is to...

Tapping In: Maryland’s Assistive Technology Financial Loan Program

To judge from the figures presented in the 2024 review of Maryland Department of Disabilities’ Technical Assistance Program (MDTAP) there’s not much knowledge within the state of the program itself or any of its projects. MDTAP has provided the Assistive Technology...

Listen Up: Maryland DDA’s Low Intensity Support Services Program Accepting Applications

Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) has long understood the need to provide funding to children and adults in the community in order that they might lead happier and more fully integrated lives in the community. What was once called Rolling...

Social Security Turns 90!

To commemorate this landmark birthday, we've re-published the open letter from Frank Bisignano, the agency's current commissioner. Today, we celebrate the 90th anniversary of Social Security—a program that has stood as a pillarof economic security and dignity for...

Healthy Options? USDA Encouraging SNAP Food Restrictions

In further changes under the new administration (remarkably, it has only been seven months) the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services are now actively seeking states to implement further restrictions on what you can buy with food...

As You Were: VCU’s National Training and Data Center Re-opens

Last week we reported that Virginia Commonwealth’s NTDC has been closed and all services terminated. This week Social Security announced that the center is open once more. Melanie Webb, the Branch Chief of SSA’s Employment Programs, sent out an n email to the nation’s...

VCU’s National Training and Data Center Closed Down

Benefits Counselors around the country received the news today that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was forced to close the National Training and Data Center (NTDC) on July 29. The brief announcement from Melanie Webb, Branch Chief of Employment Programs at...

Salt in the Wound: OBBBA and Cuts to Medicaid for Non- Citizens

Further to our recent blog on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and its plan to cut Medicaid funding, here’s some more bad news brought to you by your government. This time the target is Non-Citizens. At present there are some severe limitations to eligibility...

Stopped Check: SSA to Eliminate Paper Payments to Beneficiaries

These days if you are to order a new batch of checks you are given a choice of designs for the background and can even select a personal message line. You may notice, however, that the choices appear to skew towards appealing to an older demographic. One recent option...