Main Street Dollars

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Losing a spouse who served in the military often means losing a paycheck along with everything else, and the VA benefit meant to help fill that gap has historically taken months to arrive. In an April 15, 2026 press release, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported a specific fix to that wait: the average time…

The VA says 250,000 veterans enrolled in its health system this year

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in Government Programs

The Department of Veterans Affairs says its healthcare rolls grew by a specific, sizable number this year: more than 250,000 new enrollees since January, with the pace still building as the year goes on. That figure came from a VA press release published the same day this article was researched, making it the freshest single…

Social Security cut average field office wait times 30 percent while serving 25 million visitors

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in Social Security

The Social Security Administration marked its 91st anniversary on August 14 with a data dump most agencies would rather not publish: exactly how long people are waiting when they show up in person. This year, for the first time in a while, the numbers moved in the visitor’s favor. Nearly 25 million people walked into…

A new Medicaid fraud unit blocked $203.3 million in payments in its first 88 days

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in Government Programs

A federal-state task force spent the spring and summer chasing a narrow but expensive target: Medicaid providers billing for care that was inflated, unnecessary, or never delivered at all. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says that effort, run through something it calls the Medicaid Fraud War Room, stopped more than $203.3 million in…

Social Security announces the 2027 cost-of-living raise on October 14

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in Social Security

Every fall, one government release date determines how much bigger — or smaller — the raise will be for the roughly 75 million Americans who collect Social Security or Supplemental Security Income. That date isn’t set by the Social Security Administration deciding when it feels ready. It’s locked to a Bureau of Labor Statistics data…

New Mexico and West Virginia added yearly windows for Medicare enrollees to change supplement plans

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Medicare Supplement, or Medigap, policies have a well-known catch: once you are past your one-time federal enrollment window, an insurer can normally deny you coverage or charge more based on your health. Two states pushed back on that rule this year, in different ways. New Mexico and West Virginia both now give existing Medigap holders…

Medicare Advantage plans no longer have to tell members which extra benefits went unused

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Every Medicare Advantage plan with supplemental extras — dental cleanings, an eyewear allowance, a grocery card — has always counted on enrollees to notice, on their own, whether they were actually using what they paid into the plan for. A rule finalized earlier this year had been set to change that by forcing plans to…

Cooley Dickinson’s primary care leaves a Medicare Advantage network October 1, affecting 2,500 members

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About 2,500 people are getting a letter this fall that puts a number on a change most of them didn’t ask for: their Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plan will no longer cover their regular doctor’s visits at Cooley Dickinson starting October 1. What they do have is a 90-day window to sort it…

An Iowa hospital system now takes only Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Medigold and Wellmark

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In Clarion, Iowa, population under 3,000, the local hospital’s list of accepted Medicare Advantage insurers fits on an index card. Since the start of 2026, Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics has stopped seeing non-emergency patients whose coverage falls outside four insurers, a narrower list than almost any other hospital system tracked nationally this year. For…

A North Carolina hospital’s UnitedHealthcare extension expires December 31, in the middle of Medicare’s enrollment window

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