By Andrew M. Seaman; Reuters ~ Jul 28, 2015

(Reuters Health) – The number of deaths, hospital stays and healthcare costs decreased among older Americans on Medicare over the past 15 years, according to a new study.

“Although our health care system has its failings, we are making remarkable progress,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, the study’s lead author from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

“People are much better off today than they were 15 years ago,” he told Reuters Health in an email. “We will continue to identify our flaws and seek to improve, but people should feel good that all our efforts, collectively, are paying off.”

Monte Baggs, Vice President, TelCo Retirees Association, Inc., July 24th, 2015

There has been some confusion recently regarding this issue.  Below is a statement I received from my contact at AT&T.  Read it carefully and it will clear up most of your questions and concerns.

Retirees will not lose any concession they are currently receiving. The change is for those who have a Mobile/Cell phone with AT&T. Effective 8/1 they are moving exclusively to (online)  EBilling and will no longer be generating paper statements to send out. Retirees will need to sign up for EBill online to receive an electronic copy of their monthly statement. If they are already set up for monthly deductions through their bank account or with a credit card on file, their billing will continue to process as it currently does.

Our concern is with reaching those who rely upon the paper bill and may pay their monthly charges with a check, which is why the communication was sent out to all retirees who currently have Mobile/Cell service with AT&T.

The discounts team is preparing another communication piece to send out on or immediately after August 1^st for those who haven’t yet enrolled. Once I receive a copy of this, I’ll be sharing it with the retiree groups to host on your sites.

Note, this change is currently for Mobile services only. Retirees can still retain a paper bill for landline, UVerse or internet services.

Additionally, I asked if those who have combined billing (cell service combined on their land line account) would be impacted by these changes and the answer was “That is actually the ideal set up…”

By Vikas Bajaj; The New York Times ~ Jul 24, 2015

The Federal Communications Commission approved AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV on Friday. And, as expected, the commission imposed conditions on the company that should help telecommunications users in many parts of the country.

This deal posed significantly fewer antitrust problems than Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, which would have combined the nation’s largest and second largest cable companies. (The F.C.C. and the Department of Justice opposed that deal, forcing Comcast to back out of it.) AT&T is primarily a phone and Internet company with a growing cable-TV business, and DirecTV primarily provides satellite-TV service in the United States and Latin America and is not a big player in broadband or telephone services.

From Grace-Marie Turner; Forbes ~ Jul 24, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush tripped the Medicare wire this week in talking about the urgent need for entitlement reform, a key pillar of his plan to get the American economy moving again with 4% growth.

According to a CNN report, he was confronted by a senior citizen at a New Hampshire town hall meeting who said she was very concerned about policies that would change or phase out Medicare.

By Scott Moritz & Todd Shields; Bloomberg ~ Jul 24, 2015

The Federal Communications Commission approved AT&T Inc.’s $48.5 billion takeover of DirecTV with conditions, making the former telephone company a new powerhouse in the television business with international reach.

The FCC will require AT&T to expand broadband service to more U.S. cities and take steps to ensure rivals’ online video is treated fairly. The integration of AT&T and DirecTV will occur over the coming months, the companies said in a statement.

By Deena Beasley & Kylie Gumpert; Reuters ~ Jul 24, 2015

Anthem Inc’s decision to buy Cigna Corp, forming the largest U.S. health insurer by membership, will likely speed consolidation across the healthcare industry, from hospitals to drugmakers.

Anthem announced its proposed $54 billion purchase of Cigna on Friday, just weeks after Aetna Inc said it would buy rival Humana Inc for $37 billion. If both transactions are approved by regulators, the industry will go from five major national players to three.

By Jeanne Whalen, Wall Street Journal – July 23, 2015

By Dan Cook; BenefitsPro ~ Jul 21, 2015

Google hasn’t quite replaced the doctor yet. A recent study out of Harvard Medical School finds that the web isn’t a very good way to figure out what ails you. The study showed that even sites touted as sophisticated symptom-checkers were extremely unreliable.

Many popular symptom-checkers, such as WebMD, respond to symptoms by suggesting many — sometimes dozens — of possible ailments, with the most likely condition at the top.

By Scott Moritz; Bloomberg ~ Jul 20, 2015

AT&T Inc., a long-time laggard behind Verizon Communications Inc. in sales and share performance, is outpacing its larger rival on both metrics.

Results for both companies this week will show whether AT&T can pull further ahead.

AT&T is projected to boost sales faster than Verizon for the next 10 quarters, and it’s about to close a satellite-TV acquisition that will make it the top pay-TV provider in the U.S. while helping it bore deeper into Latin America.

By AWR Hawkins; Breitbart ~ Jul 18, 2015

In a the latest backdoor gun control effort put forward by the White House, President Obama is pushing to ban gun possession for Social Security beneficiaries who are incapable of handling their own finances.

The specific details of the ban are unknown, as it is being put together “outside of public view.” But the LA Times reports that a ban on gun possession due to inability to handle finances would be sweeping; that it would cover those who are unable to manage their own affairs for a multitude of reasons–from “subnormal intelligence or mental illness” to “incompetency,” an unspecified “condition,” or “disease.”