1.  With the government's receipt of quarterly payroll taxes, the raid of the Social Security Trust Fund now exceeds $2.514 trillion.

At the end of May 2009, the amount owed the Trust Fund (old age and disability) totaled $2.456 trillion.  But in June, the Treasury Department spent the $58 billion Social Security surplus on the general operations of the federal government, and gave the Trust Fund $58 billion in additional non-negotiable IOUs.

The Social Security trustees have projected the end of surpluses by 2016, leaving Social Security with somewhere between $3.380 trillion and $4.018 trillion (in current dollars) in total IOUs.  No one has any idea how this money can be paid back so that full Social Security benefits can continue to be paid after 2016.

Two bills have been introduced in the House to require Social Security surpluses to be saved, not spent:

* The Social Security Preservation Act, HR 219, by Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX).

* The Savings for Seniors Act, HR 1712, by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).  

2.   The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has improved its Hospital Compare website to show how frequently patients return to a hospital after being discharged, a possible indicator of the effectiveness of the treatment.

On average, one in five Medicare beneficiaries who are discharged from a hospital re-enter the hospital within a month.

Charlene Frizzera, Acting Administrator of CMS, said, "Providing readmission rates by hospital will give consumers even better information with which to compare local providers.  Readmission rates will help consumers identify those providers in the community who are furnishing high-value healthcare with the best results."

The Hospital Compare website also includes 10 measures that capture patient satisfaction with hospital care, 25 process-of-care measures, and two children's asthma care measures. 

The site also features information about the number of selected elective hospital procedures provided to patients and what Medicare pays for those services.

Public reporting of these and other measures is intended to empower patients and their families with information they need to engage their local hospitals and physicians in active discussions about quality of care. 

A Fact Sheet on the Hospital Compare website had over 18 million page views in 2008.  It can be accessed at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=3478&intNumPerPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numDays=3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType=All&chkNewsType=6&intPage=&showAll=&pYear=&year=&desc=&cboOrder=date

The actual Hospital Compare website is at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/.