Category: Benefits & Retirement
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UnitedHealthcare drops prior authorization on about 1,700 procedure codes October 1
Millions of UnitedHealthcare members who have waited days for a doctor’s office to get a procedure cleared got a specific answer this week: about 1,700 procedure and diagnostic codes will no longer need that step, starting October 1. The change touches commercial, Medicare Advantage and Affordable Care Act plans alike, and it lands squarely in…
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A Medicare Advantage flex card must now clear at the register and expires with the plan year
Tens of millions of Medicare Advantage enrollees carry a small plastic card loaded with an allowance for groceries, dental work, vision exams, or over-the-counter items. For years, many of those cards behaved like ordinary prepaid debit cards, swiping through checkout with little scrutiny over what actually landed in the cart. Two changes finalized by federal…
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A stopgap passed by Congress would fund food stamps and the government through December 11
Roughly six weeks before the last stopgap was set to run out, the Senate and House both voted to keep federal money flowing rather than let a shutdown collide with the fall calendar. The bill covers everything from food assistance to flood insurance, and it does it by extending current funding levels rather than writing…
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A working student under 22 can earn $2,410 a month before Social Security cuts an SSI check
Most Supplemental Security Income recipients see their monthly check shrink as soon as they report any earnings. One group gets a far bigger cushion: full-time students who are still young enough, and still enrolled, to qualify for Social Security’s largest earnings exclusion. In 2026, that exclusion lets a qualifying student keep several thousand dollars of…
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Social Security says more than 80 percent of people billed for an overpayment now repay online
Two years ago, a Social Security overpayment notice usually meant writing a check or standing in line for a money order. Today, according to the agency’s own numbers, most people just log in and pay instead. Social Security says more than four out of five people who owe money back to the program are now…
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CHI St. Vincent is set to leave every Arkansas Blue Cross network, including Medicare plans, September 1
A contract dispute between one of Arkansas’s largest hospital systems and the state’s dominant health insurer is set to come to a head on September 1, and Medicare Advantage enrollees across central Arkansas are the ones with the most to lose if the two sides don’t reach a deal in time. CHI St. Vincent, part…
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The VA built a $29 million fund for homeless veterans, with $18 million of it for free rides
The Department of Veterans Affairs has created a $29 million fund aimed at homeless veterans, and more than half of that money, up to $18 million, is set aside for a service many housing programs do not fund directly: rides. The VA announced the program on August 14, 2026, saying it will use recent legislation…
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The at-home spouse can keep up to $162,660 in savings when Medicaid pays for nursing care
When one spouse moves into a nursing home and applies for Medicaid to help pay for it, federal rules do not require the couple to spend down every dollar they have saved together first. The spouse who stays behind, known in Medicaid rules as the community spouse, is allowed to keep a protected pool of…
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Medicaid stops covering nursing home care once a home’s equity passes $752,000
Medicaid pays for the large majority of nursing home care in the United States, but federal law puts a ceiling on how much home equity an applicant can hold before that coverage stops. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set the federal floor for that ceiling in 2026 at $752,000, according to a bulletin…
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The three biggest Medicare Advantage insurers reversed 36 to 43 percent of the rehab denials people appealed
A federal watchdog has put a number on something Medicare Advantage enrollees in rehab facilities have long suspected: a meaningful share of the care insurers initially refuse to pay for turns out, on appeal, to have been medically necessary all along. The finding comes from the three largest Medicare Advantage insurers in the country, measured…
