Employment Links
Medicare Covers FDA-approved COVID-19 Vaccines; You Pay Nothing For the COVID-19 Vaccine
From Medicare: Be sure to bring your red, white, and blue Medicare card so your health care provider or pharmacy can bill Medicare. You’ll need your Medicare card even if you’re enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan. If you fill out a form to get the vaccine, you may be asked for your insurer’s group number. If you have Part B, leave this field blank or write “N/A.” If you have trouble with the form, talk with your vaccine provider. Medicare also covers COVID-19 tests, COVID-19 antibody tests, and COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments. Here’s what to know: You can’t pay to put your name on a list to get the vaccine. You can’t pay to get early access to a vaccine. Don’t share your personal or financial information if someone calls, texts, or emails you promising access to the vaccine for a fee. more »
GAO: SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT: Guidance Needed to Ensure Consistent Tracking, Response, and Training for DOD Civilians
The Department of Defense has taken steps to track reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault involving its federal civilian employees, but its visibility over both types of incidents is hindered by guidance and information-sharing challenges. While employees may not report all incidents for a variety of reasons, DOD also lacks visibility over those incidents that have been reported. For example, from fiscal years 2015 through 2019, DOD recorded 370 civilian employees as victims of sexual assault and 199 civilian employees as alleged offenders. However, these data do not include all incidents of sexual assault reported over this time period. Specifically, based on DOD guidance, examples of incidents that could be excluded from these data include those involving civilian employee victims (1) occurring in the continental United States, (2) employed by DOD components other than the military services, such as defense agencies, and (3) who are also military dependents. Without guidance that addresses these areas, DOD does not know the extent to which its civilian workforce has reported work-related sexual assault worldwide. more »
The GAO Finds: Elder Financial Exploitation — The Fraudulent or IIlegal Use of An Older Adult's Funds or Property — Has Far-reaching Effects on Victims and Society
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found actual losses and attempts at elder financial exploitation reported by financial institutions nationwide were $1.7 billion in 2017... studies published from 2016 to 2020 from three states — New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — estimated the costs of financial exploitation could be more than $1 billion in each state alone. HHS does not currently ask states to submit cost data from APS casefiles to NAMRS, though officials said they have begun to reevaluate NAMRS with state APS agencies and other interested parties, including researchers, and may consider asking states to submit cost data moving forward. Adding cost data to NAMRS could make a valuable contribution to the national picture of the cost of financial exploitation. Recognizing the importance of these data, some APS officials GAO interviewed said their states have developed new data fields or other tools to help caseworkers collect and track cost data more systematically. more »
Jo Freeman Reviews Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers: Lives in the Law by Jill Norgren
"This book is primarily based on one hundred oral histories of outstanding women lawyers commissioned by the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession. Impressed by Norgren's other books on women lawyers, two members of the Commission offered to make the transcripts available if she would write another book. Norgren explores childhood influences, law school experiences, and the various types of practice that these women engaged in. Until 1972, most law schools had quotas on women, usually about 7 percent, if they admitted any at all. Law professors told them that they were taking a man's place. But the fact that Amy Coney Barrett, who was born in 1972, could become a Supreme Court Justice while raising seven children is evidence of how far it has declined as a barrier to having a successful career." more »