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CMS Announces 2023 Medicare Premiums

Sep 30, 2022

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently published the 2023 Medicare premium and deductible costs and there's a modicum of good news for anyone who's paying the Part B premium. This year's basic Part B premium, a record-high $170.10, will be...

SSA Looks to Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

Sep 16, 2022

This year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month has just begun and will run until October 15 as it has done for every year since 1988. This year’s theme is ‘Building Prosperous and Health Communities” and will be celebrated with a series of symposiums, webinars, and with...

SSA National Disability Forum Coming Soon

Sep 5, 2022

In this month’s Social Security updates, the agency has announced an up-coming forum whichwill center on working to help those experiencing homelessness access SSA benefits for whichthey may well be eligible. The pellucidly titled “Homelessness: Working with...

SSA Adds More Conditions to the Compassionate Allowance List

Aug 26, 2022

It was almost exactly a year ago that this blog announced twelve additional conditions and diseases that would be considered by Social Security to meet their criteria for Compassionate Allowances. Twelve months later another twelve conditions have been added to the...

SSA Makes Further Updates to My Social Security Accounts

Aug 19, 2022

In their on-going push to get everyone to conduct their business without having to communicate directly with anyone at the agency, Social Security has announced a couple of tweaks to the My Social Security account. If you receive Social Security benefits and need to...

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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...