Fee Payments Increase

Social Security has posted the statistics for January and February on payments of fees to attorneys and others entitled to direct payment of fees for representing claimants. Fees increased by 9% from January to February of this year. Here are the numbers:

Fee Payments
Month/Year	Volume	Amount
Jan-06	18,752	$64,848,326.02
Feb-06	20,426	$70,312.586.15

Montana Woman Charged With Social Security Fraud

The Great Falls Tribune reports that a Glendive, MT woman has pleaded not guilty to Social Security fraud. She had received over $100,000 in dependent's benefits after she lost custody of the children for whom the benefits were being paid.

Bill Thomas to Retire

Bill Thomas, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has announced his retirement from Congress at the end of this Congressional session. Thomas had been ineligible for another term as Chairman under House Republican rules. The current chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of Ways and Means, Jim McCrery, is the leading candidate to succeed Thomas, if Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives.

Rubin Advises Democrats To Reject Bush Social Security Commission

Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, has advised Democrats to reject President Bush's State of the Union address proposal for a bipartisan commission to study Social Security. Rubin advises Democrats instead to push for a broader "fiscal commission" to study all aspects of the federal budget, including whether the Bush tax cuts should be continued, in addition to Social Security.

Massachusetts Man Charged With Fraud

A Boston man has been charged with using the name, Social Security number and date of birth of a New York man to obtain $22,250 of Social Security disability benefits over two years.

Budget Reconciliation Lawsuit

Jim Zeigler, the attorney in Mobile, AL who brought a declaratory judgment lawsuit to obtain a determination of whether the budget reconciliation act was properly passed by Congress, is seeking contributions for his effort. Questions have arisen because the bills passed by the two houses of Congress were not identical. One of the provisions of the bill lowers the threshold for staged payments of back SSI benefits to three months but many other interests are affected by the budget reconciliation package.

Social Security Subcommittee Hearing

The written statements submitted at yesterday's House Social Security Subcommittee hearing on assignment of Social Security numbers and payment of benefits to foreign born individuals are now available on-line. At least in the written statements, no one was calling for additional measures.

Proposed New Regulation

The Social Security Administration has published a Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) on Medicare Part B Income-Related Monthly Adjustments. Here is the NPRM's description of the proposed regulation:

We propose to add to our regulations a new subpart, Medicare Part B Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, to contain the rules we would follow for Medicare Part B income-related monthly adjustment amount determinations. The monthly adjustment amount represents the amount of decrease in the Medicare Part B premium subsidy, i.e. the amount of the Federal Government’s contribution to the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. This new subpart would implement section 811 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA) and would contain the rules for determining when, based on income, a monthly adjustment amount will be added to a Supplementary Medical Insurance (Medicare Part B) beneficiary’s standard monthly premium. These proposed rules describe: what the new subpart is about; what information we would use to determine whether you would pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount and the amount of the adjustment when applicable; when we will consider a major life-changing event that results in a significant reduction in your modified adjusted gross income; and how you can appeal our determination about your incomerelated monthly adjustment amount.