Congress is trying to pass a new budget this week that includes many important Medicare provisions. One of these provisions is a worrisome extension of past practices: increasing the amount some people must pay for their Medicare benefits.

Medicare Advantage organizations (MAOs) continue to do a poor job of maintaining accurate provider directories. These essential documents, which beneficiaries depend on to make informed plan selection and provider choices, have long been a source of frustration and confusion for Medicare beneficiaries and advocates.

The Trump Administration recently announced that it will allow states to require Medicaid recipients to work, take job training, or do community service to stay eligible for the program. To date, ten states have asked to make this change, and the administration has given the greenlight to the first—Kentucky.

Some in Congress may be considering cuts to programs that help older adults and people with disabilities meet basic needs—including Medicare and Medicaid—in an effort to fill the expected $1.5 trillion budget shortfall created by recent tax legislation. According to a new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, this goes against the will of most Americans. In fact, the poll finds that just 7% want cuts to Medicare and 12% want cuts to Medicaid.

Funding for the federal government lapsed last Saturday after the Senate rejected a four-week funding measure. Most Senate Democrats and some Republicans voted against the bill. At issue for most was how to proceed on a permanent fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

This week, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing titled Turning 65: Navigating Critical Decisions to Age Well to examine issues that older adults face as they near retirement age. In Medicare, two decisions are especially important for those who are newly eligible: when to enroll and what coverage option to choose. As the hearing highlighted, these issues have attainable solutions, namely the Beneficiary Enrollment Notification and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act and the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIPs).

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an informal request for information (RFI) on December 26, with significant implications for Medicare and Medicaid. Comments are due January 25. The Medicare Rights Center will be providing input, and we encourage all stakeholders to use our template comments to weigh in as well. Read below to learn what’s in the RFI, and what you can do to respond today!

Last week, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced plans to test a new way of paying Medicare providers for many of the services they perform, including major joint replacement and some cardiac interventions. This model—the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced (BPCI Advanced)—is the first of its kind to be introduced by the Trump administration.

This week, Medicare Rights Center submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule for Medicare Parts C & D. The proposed rule contemplates many broad changes to the Medicare Advantage and prescription drug coverage programs, largely focusing on providing more flexibility and options for plan sponsors. CMS’s stated aim is to allow plans to use the proposed flexibility to better serve beneficiaries—by creating disease- or condition-specific sets of benefits, offering more plans, and altering cost sharing arrangements.

Last month, two health policy non-profits released detailed information and graphs about health spending in the U.S. The Peterson Center on Healthcare partnered with the Kaiser Family Foundation to create a Health System Tracker for health spending and other quality and cost trends in the health system.