By Cheryl M. Keyser
A major change is coming to the Medicare card used by all existing and new beneficiaries. Starting in April 2018 and continuing through April 2019, new Medicare cards will be issued bearing a “unique and randomly assigned number” instead of the current Social Security number.
The new number will consist of a combination of numbers and uppercase letters.
This change has been a long time coming, and has been the subject of multiple hearings in Congress. Motivating the change has been the great concern that using the Social Security number leads to a greater risk of identity theft.
During this 21-month transition period, beneficiaries can use either the old or the new card and health-care providers will also be able to use either for billing purposes.
“We’re taking this step to protect our seniors from fraudulent use of Social Security numbers which can lead to identity theft and illegal use of Medicare benefits,” said the new Medicare administrator Seema Verma.
This change will not affect benefits.
For information, visit www.nahc.org.
Help for glaucoma
Glaucoma is a sneaky disease of the eye that can creep up by surprise and, in extreme cases, cause blindness. More than 3 million Americans have this condition, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, and those over 60 are at greatest risk.
There is no cure for this illness, but research being conducted at Purdue University’s Center for Implantable Devices has come up with a novel possibility which may represent a major breakthrough. According to Dr. Pedro Izaroqui, of the Center, “the potential looks promising.”
The device is a little confusing. It is based on a set of contact lenses with “a gold trace,” which is placed in the eye. The gold is “totally biocompatible,” noted Izaroqui. The lens receives an electric impulse from a special pair of glasses delivered wirelessly to the eye. This converts into a current that helps drain the fluid build-up that causes glaucoma. Its advantage is the speed of the results — with this device a patient can see better in 10 to 15 minutes.
Bionode, a university affiliated startup, expects to begin clinical trials soon.
For information, visit: www.purdue.edu/discoverpark or http://www.bionode.net
Closing VA facilities
Dr. David Shulkin, the new head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is moving aggressively as he promised, to improve VA services for veterans and eliminate unnecessary expenses.
The latter consists of a plan to dispose of VA buildings that are falling into disrepair and costing a whopping $25 million a year to maintain. Many of these are vacant buildings more than 60 years old, and some even date from the Civil War and World War I.
“As I said in my State of the VA presentation,” said Shulkin, “We will work through the legal requirement and regulations for disposal…and we will do it as swiftly as possible.”
For information, visit http://www.va.gov
Income tax fraud
Reports of scammers calling people claiming to be representatives of the Internal Revenue Service, even to the point of providing the IRS address in Washington, D.C. (public information that anyone can obtain), have been circulating for a while.
Now the Inspector General for the Treasury Department has announced that eight persons have been arrested for this impersonation scam. These eight presented themselves as IRS agents for the purpose of obtaining money by falsely threatening individuals, telling them they owed back taxes which needed to be paid immediately or the police would arrest them.
According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), these individuals have stolen over $8.8 million from more than 7,000 victims. One suspect is still at-large.
The TIGTA notes that the scammers require payment for these false taxes using prepaid gift cards.
As the agency states, “no legitimate United States Treasury or IRS official will demand that payments via Western Union, MoneyGram, bank wire transfers or bank deposits be made into another person’s account for any debt to the IRS or Treasury.”
The TIGTA goes on to state quite firmly that if you receive a call like this “hang up.”
The TIGTA offers tips for recognizing frauds: The IRS will never demand a payment by phone using any kind of card and will never send the police. It will always give the taxpayer time to question or appeal any amount if owed.
For information, visit the website at http://treasury.gov/TIGTA
Check your choices
When retirement day comes, do you choose a lump sum or a guaranteed monthly payment, known as an annuity? Many soon-to-be retirees are faced with this dilemma.
According to MetLife’s Paycheck study, one in five individuals who opted for the lump sum depleted it, on average, in 5½ years. That means that a 60-year-old would have spent that retirement income by 65½ — and still be facing a possible 15 or more years of life.
“Today people may live 20 or 30 years in retirement, and while lump sums may meet retirement-plans participants’ immediate needs, they may fall short in providing funds that can last a lifetime,” said Robin Lenna, MetLife executive vice president.
Although retirees who took either option were, in the main, happy with their choice, those who had a monthly annuity found it easier to manage their expenses.
For information, visit www.metlife.com.
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