Main Street Dollars

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Nine categories of people will never have to prove they worked, trained or volunteered a single hour to keep Medicaid, once the program’s new community-engagement requirement takes hold. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services carved them out entirely in the interim final rule it issued June 1, 2026 — a permanent exemption, not a…

Social Security is pulling bank and payroll data on SSI recipients

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in Social Security

The Social Security Administration told Congress on July 24 that it is expanding two computerized checks on Supplemental Security Income recipients: one that verifies bank account balances, and one that pulls wage data straight from payroll providers. For the more than seven million people who receive SSI, this is not a new intrusion into their…

Medicare’s annual enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, and the plan letter arriving this month spells out what changes January 1

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in Medicare

Every Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollee should expect a notice in the mail this month that quietly does more to shape next year’s coverage than almost anything else Medicare sends out. It’s the Annual Notice of Change, and it lands just ahead of the one Medicare deadline that actually forces a decision: whether to…

The federal cushion on Medicare drug plan premiums ends after December

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in Medicare

A federal program built to keep Medicare drug plan premiums from swinging wildly is being shut down, and CMS made the announcement in the same release where it published a 2027 figure that’s easy to mistake for an actual bill. The program is the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration; the figure is the $41.33 “base…

USDA is appealing the ruling that threw out food stamp soda bans in five states

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken its fight over food stamp restrictions on soda and candy to a federal appeals court, roughly three months after a district judge vacated the program in five states. The appeal doesn’t change what SNAP shoppers can buy anywhere today, but it does keep the underlying legal question —…

The food stamp parent exemption now stops when a child turns 14

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Turning 14 used to have no bearing on a parent’s food stamp eligibility. Now it marks the exact birthday when a parent who is otherwise required to work can lose the exemption that used to keep them off the three-month SNAP time limit. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act narrowed the exception for a parent…

Forty-three states must start checking Medicaid work hours January 1, and a noncompliance notice gives 30 days to answer

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Starting January 1, 2027, most states running Medicaid will have to verify that certain adult enrollees are working, training, volunteering, or otherwise staying active for a set number of hours each month before they can keep their coverage. The requirement comes from an interim final rule the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued on…

The second of the three inflation readings that set next year’s Social Security raise publishes Friday morning

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in Social Security

Retirees waiting to see how much bigger their Social Security check might get in January are getting only the second of three pieces of data this morning. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish the August Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday, September 11 — one of three monthly inflation…

Health systems dropping Medicare Advantage contracts reached 29 by September 4

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in Medicare

Becker’s Hospital Review counted 29 health systems that have dropped or are set to drop Medicare Advantage contracts in 2026, an update the trade publication posted on September 4. The number matters less as a single statistic than as a signal: providers and insurers are still fighting over Medicare Advantage terms well into the year,…

Veterans and homeless adults lost their food stamp work exemption

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