Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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Social Security can pursue a dead relative’s overpayment from their estate, and auditors found it skipped that step in nearly half of sampled cases
SSA policy makes a deceased beneficiary’s estate liable for an unpaid overpayment. An August audit found the agency did not follow its required recovery order in 59 of 125 sampled cases.
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People who bought a Google-made device in the United States since May 2016 have until August 27 to file a claim in a $68 million privacy settlement
A $68 million Google Assistant privacy settlement closes its claim window on August 27, 2026. Purchaser claims require the device model, a serial number, and a receipt.
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Mary Washington Healthcare could leave Humana’s Medicare Advantage network September 1
The Fredericksburg system’s contract with Humana Medicare Advantage expires September 1, 2026 unless a renewal is reached. Emergency care stays protected either way.
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Medicare’s $1,736 hospital deductible resets with each new benefit period, and day 61 starts costing $434 a day
The 2026 Part A hospital deductible is $1,736 per benefit period, not per year, and Medicare caps neither the number of benefit periods nor the day-61 charge of $434.
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The extra tariffs on Canadian cars, dairy and alcohol are on hold until August 22, and duties already collected must be refunded
Additional duties on certain Canadian alcohol, dairy and vehicle imports now start at 12:01 a.m. eastern on August 22, and duties already collected are to be refunded.
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The cattle herd is the smallest in 75 years, and beef is forecast to cost 10.7 percent more this year
Beef is doing something the rest of the grocery bill is not. While overall food prices are rising at a rate most households would call ordinary, the meat counter is running four times faster — and the reason sits in a cattle inventory that has been shrinking for years and cannot be reversed in one.…
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UHealth leaves UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage Preferred Care Network in Miami on January 1
Most contract fights between an insurer and a hospital system end with an announcement that everything is fine. This one ended with an announcement that most of it is fine. UnitedHealthcare and the University of Miami Health System renewed their relationship for commercial, individual and Medicaid coverage — and separately confirmed that one Medicare Advantage…
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Medicare plans must mail every member a 2027 change letter by September 30
Between now and the end of September, a document arrives that decides more household money than almost anything else in the Medicare year, and it looks like junk mail. It is the Annual Notice of Change, and it is the first place a member learns what their own plan will cost and cover in 2027…
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The consumer bureau just stopped publishing what people write about their banks and lenders
For more than a decade, anyone choosing a bank, a credit card or a mortgage servicer could read, at no cost, what other customers said happened to them in their own words. That free record stopped growing this month. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it is no longer publishing the written narratives consumers attach…
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July brought the fewest announced layoffs in two years, though employers named AI as the top reason for a fifth straight month
The layoff numbers for July came in lower than any month in two years. Buried inside the same report is a detail that complicates the good news: for the fifth month running, the reason employers gave most often for cutting jobs was artificial intelligence. Both things are in the same tally, and a household trying…
