#Offshore Medical billing

[ziaccu]

Increase patient engagement

Enhancing patient engagement is essential for improving healthcare outcomes and satisfaction. Ziaccu, a leading provider of medical billing solutions, helps achieve this by offering clear communication, transparent billing practices, and user-friendly payment options, ensuring patients feel informed and valued throughout their healthcare journey.

[mososimos]

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month

Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month focuses on educating people about Alzheimer’s disease and correcting the common misconceptions.  Many providers rely on the services of professional medical billing outsourcing companies to ensure accurate claim submission and reimbursement.   https://www.outsourcestrategies.com/blog/observing-alzheimers-brain-awareness-month-2023/

[2-2-78-09]

Lack of adherence to wound care billing guidelines can greatly impact the financial goals of your practice. Partner with Info Hub to ensure error-free billing. Call now!

[vocisllc]

E-commerce enabled websites have completely changed the way of doing business and have enabled organizations to sell their goods and services over the Internet with minimal-cost overheads and higher profit margins. E-commerce enabled websites are a 24-hour representation of your business and your image.

VOCIS allows businesses to take advantage of the Internet by developing such E-commerce stores for our customers which are operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We create end-to-end E-commerce solutions especially for your business that enable you to transact and sell goods and services on-line.

The main objective of our E-commerce division is to effectively map your entire business model into an optimal E-commerce website development company Louisville enabled business model, thereby increasing overall productivity and profitability of your business. Our high-end business analysts, web architects and developers will develop E-commerce enabled websites complete with shopping cart functionality, online transaction processing, order tracking, content management, and customer information storage capability while ensuring strict information security standards.

Our ecommerce development services facilitate the transfer of information between a payment portal and the processor. We’ve done this integration successfully for ecommerce websites and can provide secure payment integration services for all major gateways including: PayPal, Google Checkout.

Our affordable, professional custom E-Commerce solution can help you to reduce your costs, save money, and boost your profits.

You can view some samples of our work:

[medisysdatasolutions]

A successful medical practice typically thanks its in-house medical billing staff for contributing to the practice’s success. Although the staff is excellent at what they do, they don’t have the time or availability to stay up with the rapidly changing healthcare business.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

January 19-26 2024

The Energy Department announced its pausing all new liquefied natural gas export facilities. This puts a pause on export terminal in Louisiana which would have been the nation's largest to date. The Department will use the pause to study the climate impact of LNG exports. Environmentalists cheer this as a major win they have long pushed for.

The Transportation Department announced 5 billion dollars for new infrastructure projects. The big ticket item is 1 billion dollars to replace the 60 year old Blatnik Bridge between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota which has been dangerous failing since 2017. Other projects include $600 million to replace the 1-5 bridge between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, $427 million for the first offshore wind terminal on the West Coast, $372 million to replace the 90 year old Sagamore Bridge that connects Cape Cod to the mainland,$300 million for the Port of New Orleans, and $142 million to fix the I-376 corridor in Pittsburgh.

the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access announced new guidance that requires insurance companies must cover contraceptive medications under the Affordable Care Act. The Biden Administration also took actions to make sure contraceptive medications would be covered under Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. HHS has launched a program to educate all patients about their rights to emergency abortion medical care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. This week marks 1 year since President Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum seeking to protect medication abortion and all federal agencies have reported on progress implementing it.

A deal between Democrats and Republicans to restore the expand the Child Tax Credit cleared its first step in Congress by being voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Child Tax Credit would affect 16 million kids in the first year and lift 400,000 out of poverty. The Deal also includes an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit which will lead to 200,000 new low income rental units being built, and also tax relief to people affected by natural disasters

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted for a bill to allow President Biden to seize $5 billion in Russian central bank assets. Biden froze the assets at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, but under this new bill could distribute these funds to Ukraine, Republican Rand Paul was the only vote against.

The Senate passed the "Train More Nurses Act" seeking to address the critical national shortage of nurses. It aims to increase pathways for LPNs to become RNs as well as a review of all nursing programs nationally to see where improvements can be made

3 more Biden Judges were confirmed, bring the total number of Judges appointed by President Biden to 171. For the first time in history the majority of federal judge nominees have not been white men. Biden has also appointed Public Defenders and civil rights attorneys breaking the model of corporate lawyers usually appointed to life time federal judgeships

[deweydecimalchickens]

Everyone's desperate for Covid conspiracies. Here's what a real one looks like:

Knickers, dodgy-pills and fake-tan saleswoman Michelle Mone is made a Conservative life peer. For her contribution to society, presumably. We can't vote her out. We're stuck with her. She is in one of our Houses of Parliament until she or it croaks. She'd vote on our laws, which would be terrifying, if she ever bothered to turn up to work.

Mone uses her government links to bypass normal tendering processes and get the company PPE Medpro into the 'VIP lane' for government contracts during the Covid pandemic. PPE Medpro is not even incorporated as a company at this point, let alone qualified and experienced, but is subsequently awarded £200 million of government business to supply medical gowns. Mone insists she does not benefit from this so there's no possible impropriety.

The contract is waved through unscrutinised due to the public health emergency. Frontline healthcare workers are getting sick and dying because of the lack of safety gear. Contracts going through the VIP lane are 10x more successful than those going through the normal public tender process. Also the VIP lane will subsequently be declared illegal.

These gowns are never actually used, as they don't meet the British Standard and never make it through the medical regulator's process to get an exemption. The government is refusing to confirm this due to the 'commercial sensitivity' of the 'mediation' process, but it's widely reported. Also the British taxpayer is still paying money to store the things.

PPE MedPro deposits £29 million in an offshore trust. You get three guesses as to the beneficiary, and the first two don't count. Rhymes with 'Bone', as in what they've done to us.

This is what an actual conspiracy looks like. It's just capitalism and political patronage, which nobody finds very exciting. No Bill Gates microchipping your kids. Just rich fuckers passing money around and profiteering from misery and death while you all keep voting for them.

[tropes-and-tales]

The Kindness of Strangers

December 22:  Stocking/Hum - Meet-Cute (Dave York x F!reader)

(From the winter prompts found here)

CW:  Slight angst; mention of character death; implied illness; meet-cute; soft sad dad Dave

Word Count:  1441

AN:  Requested by anon!

One of the worst parts of moving is how stuff gets lost, which is why Dave York finds himself in a mall weeks before Christmas, trying to find decorations.

His temper, usually cool, is frayed.  The girls are in school, at least.  The mall is crowded, full of crying babies and loud holiday music piped in over the intercom.  It’s a damned weekday and somehow the mall is full, and his temper is unraveling, and when he checks the mental list in his head, he despairs at ever getting everything finished in time for the holiday.

“Fuck it,” he finally mutters to himself.  He marches to the nearest department store near and makes his way to the holiday area.  He knows it’ll be picked over, but will the girls really miss the elaborate garlands his wife used to hang up?  Will they really miss having three different manger scenes throughout the house or the light-up reindeer in the front yard?

He doubts it.  They are still deeply grieving the loss of their mother and the loss of their friends in their old school.  The move cross-country was necessary:  a fresh start in a new place and a new home, but also a new job for him.  The only parent now, Dave York’s gone completely straight and taken an intelligence role with a branch division with the DIA.

He doesn’t need the money, of course.  He has Carol’s life insurance policy, still mostly intact even after the medical bills were settled.  He has the profits from the sale of his old home.

He has the tidy sum of money offshore from his less-than-noble work.

But that’s done now.  A fresh start.

A fresh start without Christmas stockings doesn’t count, though.

*****

You bought your house last December, and your first Christmas in your new home had been spartan:  a feast of take-out reheated, surrounded by unpacked boxes.

Over the course of the year, you made the house your home.  Painted walls, unpacked your boxes, settled in.  Over the summer, you adopted a shelter dog, Max.

You are determined to make this Christmas better.  A party with friends, a dinner for those of you who have no families or are far from home.  And yes, you are one of those people:  you plan to spoil your mutt.  You already have presents for him, and now you just want a stocking for him to hang over your fireplace, to fill with treats—

You find the holiday section of the store.  This late in the year, it’s picked over and sparse.  There’s sad leftovers:  bent rolls of wrapping paper, chipped figurines, tinsel shedding its glitter and fibers.

The stocking section is pure carnage.  All of the ones with embroidered initials are in a pile, and all of the popular letters are gone.  You see five Q’s, two W’s, three U’s, but no M’s—

You sift through the pile, dimly aware of the man in the aisle with you.  He stands back, scanning the shelves, and you ignore him.  You hum along to the music playing over the intercom—

There.  There.  You see it, a fucking unicorn.  A stocking with an M embroidered on it—

You reach for it.  You snag one end of it, but then another hand reaches out too, grabs the other end.

The man in the aisle with you.  You look up and see him, see him attached to the arm attached to the hand holding the stocking you’re trying to buy—

You both drop it.

“Sorry,” you both say, and you both do the same awkward chuckle, give the same tight smile that is the hallmark of social awkwardness—

“No, sorry.  You saw it first,” he says, and he plucks the stocking from the pile and holds it out to you.

“Thanks.”  You take it, try to even out your smile into something more natural.  You lift your shoulder in a half-shrug.  “It’s for my dog.  It’s his first Christmas,” and when you look closer, see how handsome this stranger is, you feel the heat flood your face at your embarrassing admission.  You sound like one of those people, the sort to call your dog your son and put him in a goofy sweater and make him his own social media profiles, which…you only have one sweater for him.  

“That’s cute.  Has your dog been naughty or nice?”

Your face burns even hotter.  “Naughty, but he gets a pass.  He’s a shelter dog.”

“What’s his name?”

“Max.”  You finger the tassel on the stocking, the thought occurring to you a beat too late.  “Who’s your M?”

The man smiles at you, his brown eyes warm.  “Molly.  My daughter.”

“Oh!”  You take the stocking from your basket and hold it out to him.  “Fuck, take it.  Sorry, didn’t mean to swear but…a kid?  No, take it.”

He holds his hand out, pushes your hand away gently.  “No, you had it first.”

“No, seriously.  Please.  I’d feel terrible if I ruined some kid’s Christmas.  And, I mean…Max won’t know any better.  He’s confused by the Roomba.  He won’t know the difference on an initial.  I’ll just get a blank one, no harm.”

He hesitates, and you can see that he wants it.  That he’s just being polite.  “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.  Please take it.”

He does, and he looks down at it.  “I appreciate it.”  There’s something in his voice, a tone that says this is a bigger moment than you realize.  There’s backstory you are unaware of.

“Sure.  Yeah, no problem.”

He lifts his head and looks at you, smiles again.  “You didn’t happen to see an ‘A’ in that pile, did you?  For my other daughter, Alice.”

“Actually…”  You turn, rifle through the pile again.  “Yeah, here.”  You pull it out and hand it to him, and his smile turns to pure relief.  He practically sags in relief.

“You’re a life-saver,” he tells you, and you wave him off, aware that he’s going through something or dealing with something and you’re just a stranger who was kind in a single moment.  Though sometimes, a single kind moment from a stranger is all a person needs.

*****

Dave doesn’t mean to make it weird.  A stupid thing, to get choked up over a stocking.  To feel a sudden flood of emotions—sorrow and grief and hope and faint optimism, all at once.  The loss of his wife, raising his girls alone now…he thought he was adjusted to his new reality, but he guesses he’s not quite there yet.

And yet, here is a person, a stranger.  The holidays can bring out the feral side of people, but they can also bring out the good, which is what you’ve offered him.  A stranger with nothing owed to him, yet you graciously hand over the thing you’ve come to buy, and you smile as you do it.

He doesn’t mean for the words to spill out.  A stupid thing, to tell a stranger his business.  How far he’s fallen since his days as a mercenary, when he had every emotion carefully under control.

“Their mother died,” he blurts out, instantly horrified by what’s coming from his mouth.  “We just moved here.”

“Oh no.”  Your eyes widen in sympathy.  “I’m so sorry.”  

“I don’t…it’s fine.”  He chuckles, a little bitter.  “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

“I have one of those faces.  People just tell me things.”

“You should work for law enforcement then.  Work on getting confessions.”

You smile, shake your head.  “Nah.  I don’t like guns.”

You each stand there for an awkward beat of silence, and he starts to turn to leave, gives you another tight smile.  Something about the moment or something about him hits you, and you reach into your purse and pull out a piece of paper.  You hand it to him—a business card.

“This is you?” he asks.

“Yes.”  He reads it—you’re a music instructor.  You give music lessons.  Pretty far from law enforcement after all.

“It has my number.  My email.  You’re new in town, and if you need anything…”  You trail off, bite your lip.  “I’m just realizing how that sounds.”

He slips it into his pocket.  He spares you the truth which is, yes, it sounds like you’re hitting on him.  Giving him your contact information.  Him, a widower and father of two motherless daughters.  

“It sounds neighborly,” he says, and he smiles at you.  Because it is neighborly too, and he knows that now more than ever, he needs his new neighbors.  He needs friends; he needs people who are kind instead of feral, who do a simple nice thing for a stranger.

[sokkastyles]

Today I have for you an except from my entry for Day 3: Hunter/Monster for @zkmythicalcreaturesweek! The full fic will be posted later.

To those with an open mind, get ready to open those pockets because we will pay you good money! All you have to do is hold the camera.

Be a part of Team Spirit Seekers! (Also known as Team Avatar and Team Oogie Boogie Busters.)

Meet us at the below address at midnight on October 17th. We will bring the equipment.

-

It was absolutely one of the stupidest things he had ever considered doing in his life.

No, it was the singular most stupid thing he’d ever thought he would consider in his life. Because of course, he couldn’t really be considering it, could he?

Truth be told, though, Zuko had already done a lot of stupid things in his life.

But ghost hunting? He’d have to be desperate to even consider it.

And he was desperate, a voice in the back of his head reminded him.

It was just one night. All he had to do was hold the camera.

It’s not like he’d had success elsewhere. It had been almost a year since he’d had steady work. It didn’t help that he had no skills and a resume that didn’t exactly scream hire me. He’d started working at his father’s company right out of college, barely passing business school. He’d suspected for years that Ozai’s influence was the reason his professors passed him but had been able to shove that thought aside when it kept earning him good grades, then good money. Now, though…well, at least now he knew for sure that he’d only survived on nepotism.

He supposed that had been part of the reason he’d been content with the menial desk job at his father’s office, the thought, always in the back of his mind, that he didn’t really deserve it. Most of his job involved looking the other way when money exchanged hands, which in turn ensured that there was always a good amount that found its way into his.

Until the one time he chose not to look the other way, that is.

There was an offshore account, money funneling in from various “charitable” organizations that had been set up in his father’s name. Most of them had actually been a front for an illegal weapons racket. One was pretending to fund medical bills for sick children.

Zhao had laughed about that last one when Zuko had confronted him with it. 

When Zuko told him that he would take it to the press, he didn’t find it as funny.

Zuko had been confident that when his father learned what Zhao was doing with his money, with his company’s good name…that he would want to know.

That was another stupid thing.

Of course, his father had already known about the whole thing. The next day, the locks had been changed at Zuko’s office and he’d been served with the threat of a defamation lawsuit if he ever revealed what he knew. To top it off, the landlord of Zuko’s high rise apartment also had somehow found out that Zuko no longer had a job and had kicked him out the next day. Since then, Zuko struggled to find work anywhere in the city. It seemed as if the whole world knew what a fuckup he was.

Now he was living in a shitty apartment in a shitty part of the city and seriously considering becoming a ghost hunter.

Sorry, Spirit Chaser. Team Avatar or whatever that meant. Ooogie Boogie Buster.

He had a headache.

He needed money, though.

October 17th was two days away.

His new landlord had already given him a week’s extension, and that had been two weeks ago. Zuko needed money, and he needed it fast.

Just one night. Just hold the camera.

The reply address belonged to someone named Toph Beifong. 

Beifong? 

That explained the large amount of money being offered. 

Clicking the reply button, Zuko hoped that this Toph Beifong was good for what she was promising.

[mososimos]

ICD-10 Codes to Report Peptic Ulcer

This blog lists the ICD-10 codes for peptic ulcer, the painful, open sore that develops inside the lining of the stomach or initial part of the small intestine.  Outsourced medical coding services are a practical way to ensure accurate coding and claims submission for appropriate reimbursement. https://www.outsourcestrategies.com/blog/icd-10-codes-peptic-ulcer-common-gastrointestinal-disorder/

[2-2-78-09]

Are you looking for ways to streamline and increase your practice revenue? Here is how an offshore medical billing agency can help you. Get in touch with Info Hub Today.

[vocisllc]

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VOCIS Medical billing provider Mountainside NJ can and will

Increase your cash flow Eliminate your employee expenses Decrease your office paperwork Reduce your hardware and software upgrading and updating cost Reduce your telephone and postage expenses Save your valuable time Increase revenue through improved collection process Give you the confidence your practice needs to grow Our services backed by our 24 X 7 support operation, ensure that your questions are addressed any time of the day or night with a 100% commitment towards excellence in service. References of clients will be provided on request.

[summerlovingbaby]

Hench Part 2

She remembered when her family was happy. Before her dad got drug-addicted and mean, before her mother worked herself to the bone, before her brother abandoned her by leaving for college, leaving her with more bills to pay, and when her grandmother was still alive.

She remembered everything. While she was in her medically induced coma, she remembered it all, it was one of her more pleasant dreams, trapped in a memory of the past. A past so distant that the memory nearly faded, but not completely. At least she was trapped in one of the good ones, it could have been a bad one.

It could have been a time when she was younger, her brother left for a week and a half on a school trip, her mother lost her job months ago, and her step-father pissed away their savings on beer and poor poker hands, the school was out so she couldn’t rely on school lunches and her teachers to notice her quick decline due to general lack of care. She made the grave mistake of asking her parents for dinner, the first bite of food that she would have had in days. She doesn’t remember how, but she woke up 3 days later in the hospital, her mother convinced her that she tripped down the stairs, but she was sure that wasn’t the case.

The only thing she remembered was her stepdad yelling at her, the sound of the yelling never left her. The sound of his yell jumpstarted her heart every time she thought about it, and made her tense with worry. The sound of her yelling woke her up with a groan.

She moved her arm to cover her eyes from the white and yellow light assaulting her senses. The smell of antiseptic burned her nose, and she could taste the remnant of it on her tongue. She coughed and her throat felt like she swallowed a box of razor blades.

She sat up, it took longer than she cared to admit, and peeked open her eyes with blurred vision, it took a bit, but her vision came to her, quickly followed bya throbbing pain that spread from the tips of her fingertips to the bottom of her toes. One of her legs itched with a gnawing pain that snapped at her nerves. At first, it was manageable at first, but slowly turned into something that made her bite her bottom lip to keep from crying out.

The pain raised her heartbeat, and the steady beep of the heart monitor turned into a frantic pleading beep that made the air around her feel conglealed, she tried to breathe properly but waves of adrenaline washed over her when she realized she had no idea where she was. She was sure that she was in a hospital, but it wasn’t impossible that she was hidden in some offshore prison.

Her theory of hospitalization was only confirmed when a strangely preppy blonde nurse skipped into the room followed by two men. The one to her left was short and fat and had a white handlebar mustache. He lifted the goggles of his face revealing mud-brown eyes hidden behind a mountain of wrinkles. The man to her left, though much taller walked with hunched shoulders. Y/N didn’t get a glimpse of his face then but didn’t miss the poorly applied makeup slathered all over him. Applied all over his face in chucks that melted down to the skin on his chest, leaving him splotchy and strange looking. His long slender arms jammed in the pockets of her lab coats that was a few sizes too small, given the way that his broad shoulders nearly ripped the lab coat at the seams. They stopped a few feet at the edge of her hospital bed.

 The blonde girl did a full spin around the trio, then smiled with her pointed teeth and giggled.

“ Look, this one awake.” she chirped. “ I told you, I told you, I told you.” she stopped twirling to clap and bounce on her toes. “ ha. I was right and you were wrong.”

The fat doctor put the goggles back on his face and smiled. Only a fool would mistake that smile for joy, and Y/N was no fool, she knew exactly what that smile meant. Her stepdad would smile at her like that on occasion, and on those occasions, Y/N hated being alive.

There was no way they were doctors.

The blonde one was much too chirpy to be a nurse, nurses were usually overworked a mean, she would know, her mother used to be one, and the two men seemed much too sinister to be doctors. The fat one glared at her like she was a slab of meat and talked like she was dead.

“ I was hoping this one would wake up,” he said, his white mustache dancing on his upper lip as he spoke, which was incredibly distracting. “ I have a good feeling about this one, she is more powerful than she knows.”

“ She would have been a more useful Nomu.” spoke the tall one, the tones of his voice disintegrated leaving the only thing left the sound of a husk.

“ Time will only tell, my boy,” he replied, “ all in do time.”

“ If it doesn’t work out can I drain her blood?”

Y/N stared at them strangely, though her frantic pule told them otherwise she was not afraid. Not of the blonde chirpy one, who seemed much too happy with the thought of draining her blood, not of the fat doctor who looked at her like she was a slab of beef at the butcher's, his eyes weighing her to see how much she was worth. Only intrigued, by the boy with the inky black hair, who she had yet to see his face.

“ Who?”

The boy turned, there was a lot to notice about him. The splotchy poorly matched makeup slathered all over his face and down his neck. The white hair started to peep through at the bottom of his roots, but the only thing she could take notice of was his watercolor blue eyes that were dangerous and welcoming all at once. He whipped his hand to his face and whipped a single finger to his face in a short moment before pushing the two others into the bathroom, his blue eyes disappearing behind the doors, forever unseen by another nurse who walked in the room.

She was looking down at her clipboard when she entered, looked up at Y/N with a half-hearted smile and nodded to her, looked back down scribbled something down to her clipboard, and turned on her heels to leave, she made it all the through the threshold of the door and to the nurses station before her clipboard clattered to the floor and she sprinted back in the room, her messy brown bob frizzed.  Y/N shrugged her shoulder. 

“ Hello,” Y/N said with a confused wave. “ Am I in a hospital?”

“ Holy crap! You’re awake. How?”

Y/N shrugged.

The next few minutes were spent with a handful of nurses ushering themselves in the room, yapping with cheer about some sort of miraculous medical miracle. It took 6 minutes before she realized she was the medical miracle that they were talking about.

The joy of life only just came to full realization when a doctor rushed into the room, he must have been running very quickly because his hair was windswept and he would have run past the room, had he not grabbed onto the doorframe.

He only allowed himself a brief moment of wonder. “ Well all be.” he said. Then he turned towards a very confused Y/N who finally was able to speak. 

“ My brother?” she asked. “ Has my brother been-”

“ You’re a Jane Doe.” the doctor interrupted. “ We couldn’t identify you, and no one has claimed you.”

“ What?” her pulse quicken. That was impossible. Her brother would have found her at least, her step-dad wouldn’t, there was no question there, probably celebrate her disappearance with a cold can of beer and french fries. Her mother would try for all about 5 minutes, and maybe file a police report, but her brother would look for her come hell or high water, even if he was half dead, he would at least try. “ That’s impossible.”

“ It’s not entirely uncommon in mass tragedy events.” one of the nurses said calmly. “ There’s a lot of confusion and paperwork, and hospitals and police have to go through a lot of red tape-”

“ What hospital am I in?” she interrupted. “ Where am I?” 

“ St. Johns Memorial.” The doctor said. “ I’m Dr. Parvish-”

“ My brother would have-”

“ If he’s looking for you he didn’t-”

“ He’s looking for me,” she yelled, she would have shouted, but the talking made her throat sore and she was afraid that shouting would have shredded her vocal cords even more than they were. “ He is.” she slapped her thighs and instantly regretted it, her leg ebbed with pain.

“ Okay, just take it easy.” the doctor calmly stretched out his arm. “ All we're saying is that he didn’t put out a missing persons report, so we haven’t been able to-”

“ What mass tragedy event?”

“ Excuse me?” the doctor tilted his head.

“ Someone said mass tragedy, what mass tragedy?”

“ There was a villain attack. There was a lot of collateral damage.”

He allowed Y/N a brief moment to think, Y/N didn’t take that moment.

“ What happened?”

“ We found you in a pile of rubble. Now if you would tell me your name.” he offered, he must have seen how confused and afraid she was because he talked in a calm and soothing voice. He looked down at his clipboard and waited for a response.

“ My name is Y/N L/N, my brother is Steven L/N.”

The doctor stopped scribbling on his notebook and glanced back up at her with the widest eyes that she’d ever seen. His skin went ghostly pale.

She thought he must have not heard her, so she repeated herself.“ My brother-”

The doctor dropped his clipboard and flinched when it clattered to the ground, but he didn’t care, he just slowly paced towards the bed, at sat down on the edge.

“ You’re a hero,” he said, “ you saved so many people that day,” tears fell down his face, “ you saved my mom, she lived in one of the buildings that collapsed. I go see her when I can, but it’s hard because I have to work so much so we don’t lose our insurance, and… and you sometimes delivered her food, she would always talk about how she enjoyed talking to you…” he started to ramble, bouncing from thought to thought. “ You saved her, she would have gotten crushed by debris, but you saved her, you put yourself in harms way, you saved her.” he used his sleeve to wipe the tears from his face. “ You saved 4 dozen people.”

Y/N considered that, then studied his face, if she was a hero then why did he look at her with wide fragile eyes? If his mom was alive then why did he look petrified at the thought of her? 

“ Then why do you look so sad?” she asked, in a small afraid voice.

He chewed on his bottom lip, and motioned to the remaining nurses to leave the room, leaving Y/N and him alone in a sterile white room, the only sound she could hear over the sound of her racing heartbeat was the various loud machines and the sound of an ambulance outside.

“ I’m sorry to tell you… that your brother, that Steven isn’t with us.”

She looked at him and narrowed her eyes.

“ Well of course he isn’t here right now, just call him, I’m sure he’ll come, his phone nu-”

“ I mean that…. Your brother is dead.”

Y/N stared at him for a while, considering his words, she nodded before shaking her head. She refused to believe it. There was no way, she was a hero, she saved half a dozen lives was it to much to ask that she get this one thing? Apparently, it was to much….

“ No,” she said simply, “ no I don’t believe you. You’re lying to me. Why are you lying?” 

“ I understand your confusion, and I understand-”

“ Give me your phone, let me call him. I can call him!” she demanded. “ He’ll show up, he always shows up. He’s not dead.”

The doctor glanced nervously at the heart monitor, displeased at its rapid increase.

“ I’m sorry-”

“ But I did the right thing, I saved everyone, I saved everyone I did the right thing!” she grabbed at her chest and started to cry, trying hard to ignore the ache in her lungs that made it hard to get a full breath. “ I was a hero, I saved everyone.”

The doctor stood up quickly and called for a nurse, a nurse in blue scrubs rushed into the room, she couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation over the sounds of her sobs, just felt the doctor quickly push her back on the bed and inject her with a sedative that made the world turn into soft shadows.

Her chest turned into a dull ache and she tried hard not to cry, because every time she tried it felt like she was choking, and focused on her slow breathing. The doctor held her hand and squeezed it, to help her breathe, once her breathing stabilized, he left.

“ But I did the right thing,” she said as he was leaving, in the smallest voice she ever heard.

The doctor didn’t think it would be the best time to bring up her leg that was crushed by rubble, they were able to save it, repairing it the best they could, for all intents and purposes it was a medical miracle that they were able to save it at all, but she would unfortunately never have 100% mobility and would probably walk with a limp for the rest of her life.

She did the right thing, she saved people, and look where it got her. Alone, sick, and tired.

taglist    

@kiribakuslilpebble    @un-limit-edd     @ultrahugakitten  @ jmook423 @ anonymousbabygirl13-blog   @ power-house-fan12                                  @imunderurbed   @fandomfreak1000000   @dylan-kai2008 @cheesecakeva  @lovemegood  @madsttx @whatdidshesayyy

@ great-goddess-of-sin   @bitchyzombienacho  @polpoe

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[meanderingstream]

Summary of the achievements by week. More info can be found in each week’s post and by following the links there. 

(when it says $ was announced for a project, that is the relevant agency’s plan to distribute that money in a program- the agencies are of course funded by Congress and do not just decide unilaterally how to spend taxes)

Week 1

Limit bank overdraft fees proposal- 

effective October 2025 if approved

Fine oil/gas companies for emitting methane proposal

Fully effective 2026 if approved 

$104 million in grants to support clean energy projects

$5 billion student loans canceled for income driven repayment and public service loan forgiveness plans

Launched program to fight lead exposure in developing countries

Deal reached to revive the expanded child tax credit projected to lift 400,000 kids out of poverty in first year

Week 2

Paused all new natural gas export facilities 

$5 billion for infrastructure projects like fixing bridges, interstates, and offshore wind terminals.

New guidance requires insurance companies to cover contraceptive medicine under Affordable Care Act

Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, and Federal Employee Health Benefits Program also must cover it

Federal agencies reported on progress implementing the order to protect medication abortion signed 1 year ago

Expanded child tax credit deal made it out of committee in The House

Senate foreign relations committee passed a bill to distribute $5 billion in seized Russian assets to Ukraine

Senate passed Train More Nurses Act

3 more Biden judges confirmed

Week 3

House overwhelmingly passed expanded child tax credit deal

Began negotiations on drug prices for Medicare

$240 million to modernize/refurbish airports across the country

Announced the 10 sites across US that will receive innovation investment for clean energy, sustainable textiles, semiconductor manufacturing, etc

State dept. reviews options for recognizing Palestinian statehood

Imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers who have engaged in violence against Palestinians and peace activists 

Loan to help reopen a Michigan nuclear power plant as part of goal to decarbonize the electric grid

IRS launched program to let people file taxes for free with them instead of paying for programs like TurboTax 

$28 million in grants for help with treatment of substance use disorders.

$72 million for 46 hydroelectric projects

Senate confirmed Biden's 175th federal judge. 

For first time in history a majority of a president’s nominees are not white men

Week 4

Announcement that 23 million Americans have been connected to high speed internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program. Sadly, the program will be forced to end if Republicans in Congress continue to block new funding

$5 billion for a National Semiconductor Technology Center

Finalized rules that will strengthen air quality standards around soot. Projected to prevent 4,200 premature deaths and save Americans $46 billion in health costs

$1.5 Billion investment in America's bus systems

Memorandum directing a strengthening of human rights safeguards around weapons transferred from US stockpiles to allied nations

Announced joint program to streamline Gov response to homelessness between HHS, HUD, 8 states and DC

Released study projecting Puerto Rico will be able to be 100% renewable energy by 2050

Low income Puerto Ricans will soon be able to apply for a solar power program, the first investments in a billion dollar DoE program for the island's renewable energy future

$417 million dollar loan to the North Carolina Turnpike Authority to complete a major transportation overhaul in the greater Raleigh area

Announced plan to invest federal funds to help measure and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas production

Senate confirmed 2 more Biden nominated federal judges

Week 5

Released first draft for a new student loan forgiveness plan that will hopefully hold up in court

1.2 Billion Dollars to combat human trafficking, including $175 million in housing assistance to human trafficking victims

$970 Million for improvements at 114 airports across 44 states and 3 territories

Medicare & Medicaid released new guidelines to allow people to pay out of pocket prescription drug costs in monthly installments rather than as a lump sum

Added 150 more communities to EPA’s Closing America's Wastewater Access Gap Community Initiative to ensure people have basic running water and indoor plumbing

Announced deferred action for Palestinians in the US. This means any Palestinian living in the United States, no matter their legal status, can not be deported for any reason for the next 18 months

This will need to be renewed next year. A Harris administration almost certainly will. A Trump administration likely won’t.

$60 million in investment into clean geothermal energy

$83 million to help improve air quality monitoring across America

$63 million in investments in domestic heat-pump water-heater manufacturing. Which  reduce greenhouse gasses by 50% over the most efficient condensing gas boilers\

$5.1 million to organizations working on preventing homelessness, fighting depression and suicide, drug use and HIV prevention and treatment, family counseling, etc for LGBTQI+ Youth and their Families

In support of the oppressed Uyghur minority in China, the House passed 2 bill that would prohibit US Gov from spending money on projects that source materials from Xinjiang and create a permanent post at the State Dept. to coordinate policy on Uyghur Issues

Week 6

$5.8 billion in funding upgrade America's water systems

Canceled $1.2 billion in student loan debt for 153,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan which erases federal student loan balances for those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have been making payments for at least 10 years

$100 million in federal funding for women’s health research

500 new sanctions against Russian targets in response to the murder of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny

$700 Million in new investments to benefit people in rural America for high speed internet, clean drinking water, sanitary wastewater, and more

$1.5 billion in upgrades to expand chip factories to boost American semiconductor manufacturing

$1.25 billion in  funding for local projects that improve roadway safety

The 2022 Safe Streets and Roads for All program has spent $1.7 billion in 1,000 communities impacting 70% of America's population

$19 million to help New Jersey buy electric school buses

Bonus: NASA landed spacecraft, Odysseus, on the moon, the 1st time in 50 years America has gone to the moon.

Week 7

$1.7 Billion in new commitments from local governments, health care systems, charities, business and nonprofits towards ending hunger in America

The White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities has also led to the USDA’s program which feeds children over the summer in 37 partnering states

House passed a bill on Nuclear energy expanding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Capping copays that families pay to no more than 7% of income for the CCDBG grants for childcare and streamlining payments to childcare providers, ensuring prompt payment

House passed a bill improving the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program which offers wide ranging training and support to small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged, predominantly native owned businesses

Announced steps to boost housing supply and lower home costs through a program which has created 12,000 affordable housing units since 2021 with $2 billion, and a program which has spent $4.35 billion since 2021 to build affordable rental homes and make home ownership a reality for Americans.

Also funding for manufactured housing, the first administration to do so

$336 million in investments in rural, remote, and tribal communities to lower energy costs and improve reliability

Proposed new rules to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity

$3 Billion dollar program to help ports become zero-emission

$1 Billion dollars to help clean up toxic Superfund sites

Bonus: Sweden cleared the final major barrier to become NATO's 32nd member

Week 8

Finalized a rule capping credit card late fees at $8

Announced a new Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (especially targeting shrinkflation) 

Proposed a new rule banning bulk billing, where in landlords charge tenants of apartment buildings for internet, cable, or satellite services, even if they do not use it or opt into being billed

Announced actions that have prevented the collapse of the Colorado River system which provides drinking water and electricity for 40 million Americans in the Southwest. 

Executive Order to expand apprenticeships and reestablish direct communication between unions and management in federal agencies (a program allowed to lapse under Trump)

Actions to lower price of health care

Medicare negotiating prices for 10 drugs, first time in history they are allowed to negotiate prices

Proposal that medicare should be able to negotiate 50 such drug prices a year

Medicare Part-D capped the yearly price of ALL medications at $2,000

The President wants to expand this cap to all Americans

President called on congress to make permanent the tax credits for insurance premiums that saved Americans an average of $800/year 

President called for $12 billion in Women's Health Research to help close the historic research gap

President called for surprise billing protections to apply to ambulance providers, meaning people won't have to worry about an outrageous bill for an ambulance ride

Announced the first over-the-counter birth control pill will be available on pharmacy and store shelves nationwide and online later this month, and major pharmacies CVS and Walgreens will now offer the abortion pill Mifepristone

In the State of the Union, Biden called for a ceasefire in Gaza to release the hostages and bring in wide-ranging humanitarian aid.

Added over 100,000 more additional households to rental assistance

Called on Congress to expand it by more than half a million and to pass a bill giving $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-generation homebuyers

President wants to expand the Affordable Housing Program and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Also seeks tax credits for 1st time buyers and those selling their starter homes at under market value to owner-occupant

Bonus: March 7th 2024, Sweden formally joined NATO

Week 9

IRS launched direct file pilot program

Biden expressed support for trans and non-binary youth in the aftermath of the suicide of Nex Benedict, and Dept. of Ed.’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into his school district

Vice President Kamala Harris became the first sitting Vice-President (or President) to visit an abortion provider as part of her Reproductive Rights Tour

$3.3 billion worth of infrastructure projects across 40 states designed to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure

Taking steps to eliminate junk fees for college students, plan to ban schools from automatically billing for textbooks and pocketing leftover money on student meal plans

$120 million in investments to help boost Climate Resilience in Tribal Communities

$750 million dollars in investment in clean hydrogen power

$2.3 billion loan to build a lithium processing plant in Nevada (a key component in rechargeable batteries used it electric vehicles)

$1.2 billion in funds to reduce pollution in public transportation

Geothermal Energy Optimization Act introduced in the Senate, which would help expand geothermal projects on public lands.

The Justice for Breonna Taylor Act was introduced in the Senate banning No Knock Warrants nationwide

Bill was introduced in the House requiring the US Postal Service to cover the costs of any late fees on bills that USPS failed to deliver on time

Senate Confirmed 3 more Biden nominees to be lifetime federal judges: Jasmine Yoon the first Asian-America federal judge in Virginia, Sunil Harjani in Illinois, and Melissa DuBose the first LGBTQ and first person of color to serve as a federal judge in Rhode Island. Brings total # of Biden judges to 185

Week 10

Announced new emission standards with the goal of having more than half of new cars and light trucks sold in the US be low/zero emission by 2032

Canceled nearly $6 Billion dollars in student loan debt for 78,000 borrowers who work in public sector jobs like teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters, etc

Under Pressure from the administration and Democrats in Congress, Drugmaker AstraZeneca joins rival Boehringer Ingelheim in capping the price of inhalers at $35, the same price the Biden Admin capped the price of insulin for seniors

The Dept. of Justice sued Apple for being an illegal monopoly in smartphones

EPA passed a rule banning the final type of asbestos still used in the United States

$8.5 billion to help build advanced computer chips in America

Executive Order prioritizing research into women's health and directing $200 million into it

Democratic Senators introduced the "Shrinkflation Prevention Act" 

$45 million in projects that improve Bicyclist and Pedestrian Connectivity and Safety

$77 Million to put 180 electric school buses onto the streets of New York City

Senate confirmed Nicole Berner to Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, along with Edward Kiel and Eumi Lee as district judges, bringing Biden’s federal judge appointments to 188

Week 11

The Administration responded to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, promising to clear the harbor and rebuild the bride. $60 million in emergency funds are already released, and Biden is expected to seek $1 billion from Congress

VP Harris announced $1 billion dollars in new investments as part of the Central America Forward partnership to improve conditions in Central America so people there are not so desperate to trust human traffickers to reach the US. Also announced $175 million dollars of direct aid to Guatemala

Announced $1.5 billion dollar loan to help restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan

Social media push to inform the public about the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan under which anyone making $16 an hour or less has a monthly payment of $0 on their student loans. Republicans are suing to try to shut down the SAVE Plan

Biden extended the window for low-income Americans to apply for Obamacare, rolled back Trump era rules that allowed subsidies for "Junk Health insurance" which offer very little coverage, often mislead consumers about what’s covered, and don't have to follow Obamacare standards so can refuse to cover preexisting conditions.

Announced new regulations aimed at "turbocharging" the number of electric trucks on the road

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, 41 different drugs will cost Medicare enrollees less than last year, announced the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

$6 billion for an effort to decarbonize energy-intensive industries

Executive Order to Strengthen the Recognition of Women’s History

Senate confirmed 3 federal judge nominees, total Biden appointees now 190

Week 12

Biden united with Bernie Sanders at the White House to review Democratic efforts to bring down drug prices.

In the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster, the federal government has released $60 million in emergency money toward rebuilding so far,and the Administration is working with business and labor unions to keep workers at work and cover lost wages.

$20 billion to help finance tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country like clean power generation/storage, 0-emission transportation, etc. 70% will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities

$20.5 billion in investments in public transportation

$4 billion in tax credits for businesses investing in clean energy, critical materials recycling, and Industrial decarbonization

$1.5 Billion in investments in climate-smart agriculture

Approved the New England Wind offshore wind project- the 8th such offshore wind project approved by the Biden administration

Dept. of interior announced:

$320 Million for tribal water infrastructure

$244 million to deal with legacy pollution from mining in the State of Pennsylvania

$25 million to protect wetlands in Arizona

$19 million to put solar panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah

Dept. of Energy announced $27 million for 40 projects by state, local and tribal governments to combat climate change

Week 13

A further 277,000 Americans had student loan debt canceled through the SAVE plan, bringing Biden’s total to 4.3 million people seeing $153 billion of debt canceled so far

Biden announced a plan that would relieve debt for 30 million Americans through steps like automatically canceling debt for eligible public servants instead of them needing to apply.

Announced rules closing gun-show loophole so that all gun sales legally require background checks, even for gun shows or private sales online

EPA published the first ever regulations on PFAS, known as forever chemicals, in drinking water.

Dept. of Commerce announced a deal with microchip giant TSMC to bring billions in investment and manufacturing to Arizona

EPA finalized rules strengthening clean air standards around chemical plants

Dept. of the Interior announced it had beaten the Biden Administration goals when it comes to new clean energy projects

$830 million to support local communities in becoming more climate resilient.

Senate confirmed 3 federal judge nominees, total Biden appointees now 193

Week 14

Dept. of Commerce announced a deal with Samsung to help bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research and development to Texas

Dept. of Energy announced it granted New York State $158 million to help support people making their homes more energy efficient

Dept. of Education began the formal process to make President Biden's new Student Loan Debt relief plan a reality

$1 billion dollar collaboration with USAID to buy American grown foods to combat global hunger

food aid will help feed people in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen

Dept. of Interior announced expansion of four national wildlife refuges to protect 1.13 million acres of wildlife habitat and signed an order protecting parts of the Placitas area sacred to the Pueblo people

announced new workplace safety regulations about the safe amount of silica dust mine workers can be exposed to.

Administration announced its progress in closing the racial wealth gap in America. 

Black Unemployment is the lowest it's ever been since it started being tracked in the 1970s and the gap between white and black unemployment is the smallest it's ever been as well

Black wealth is up 60% over where it was in 2019

The share of black owned businesses doubled between 2019 and 2022 and new black businesses are being created at the fastest rate in 30 years

Since the creation of the Interagency Task Force to combat unfair house appraisals, the likelihood of black homeowners having their homes undervalued compared to whites who own comparable property has dropped by 40% and even disappeared in some states

2023 represented a record breaking $76.2 billion in federal contracts going to small businesses owned by members of minority communities. This was 12% of federal contracts and the President aims to make it 15% for 2025

EPA announced it plans to add PFAS, known as forever chemicals, to the Superfund law

Week 15

Biden with AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Senator Ed Markey announced a program, Solar For All, providing $7 billion aimed at supporting low income households install solar power

New rule raises income cap for required overtime. Before, employers only had to pay overtime to employees earning less than $35,568 a year. Now, the limit is $43,888, and in January 2025 it will be raised again to $58,656

$1 billion dollar program to help replace heavily duty vehicles with clean energy versions

To protect 13 million acres of Alaska wildland and secure the livelihood of Alaska native peoples who rely on it, the administration refused oil and mining rights as well as a 210 mile road across vast areas of northern wilderness

Finalized rules requiring airlines to give automatic cash refunds for canceled flights and other inconveniences

Finalized rules on emissions standards for fuel burning power plants

Security of Transportation Pete Buttigieg attended the ground breaking of a new high speed rail project to connect Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which the administration announced $3 billion to support last year

FCC announced a new rule restoring Net Neutrality

FTC passed finalized regulations to ban non-compete agreements in nearly all cases

$1 billion project to connect tribal communities to safe drinking water

announced plans to protect, restore and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of rivers and streams

Dept. of Health and Human Services announced a new rule boosting privacy protection for abortions

Harris announced a new rule requiring staffing standards at Nursing Homes across the country

$6 billion deal with tech giant Micron to bring high tech manufacturing to New York

Dept. of Education finalized the most comprehensive federal protections for Trans and other Queer students in the nation's history

Week 16

$3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system

Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system

Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land

announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars

IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans

Dept. of Interior announced plans for new offshore wind power

Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare

Dept. of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system to be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

Senate confirmed another federal judge lifetime appointment, total Biden appointees now 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men

Week 17

Harris announced 5.5 billion dollars to build affordable housing and address homelessness

At the 3rd meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration group (a partnership between the US and 20 other nations in the Americas), Security of State Blinken announced $578 million in new humanitarian aid to Latin America

Dept. of Energy lead an effort to get the G7 to agree to phase out coal by the early 2030s

Biden announced a major investment deal in Racine, Wisconsin, site of the failed Trump Foxconn deal which promised $13,000 jobs that never materialized, and bulldozed over 100 homes and farms before pulling out of the deal. Biden’s deal with Microsoft will bring in 2,000 new jobs to help replace the 1,000 lost jobs during Trump’s presidency

200 tribal governments and the US territories of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, published climate action plans paid for by the administration’s Pollution Reduction Grants program

As part of marking Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the administration announced several actions as part of their National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism, the first ever national strategy addressing the issue by any administration

USAID announced $220 million in additional humanitarian aid to Yemen

$150 million to help communities fight drought supporting 42 projects across 10 western states

Week 18

Justice Dept. endorses lifting many restrictions on marijuana

Dept. of Interior announced moratorium on new coal mining in America's largest coal producing region, the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana (40% of US coal production)

Harris announced that the administration had broken records by investing $16 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

$30 billion dollars in renewal funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program

$671.4 million in investments in rural infrastructure to improve electric and safe water utilities in 47 projects across 23 states

HUD announced a record breaking $1.1 billion dollar investment in Tribal housing and community development

$2 billion in investments in America's busiest passenger rail route, the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston

HUD announced plans to streamline its HOME program to speed up building affordable new homes

$520 million in new water projects to help protect against drought in the western states

Dept.s of Agriculture and HHS have stepped up efforts to wipe out the H5N1 virus prevent its spread to humans while protecting farmers livelihoods

Senate confirmed another 3 federal judge lifetime appointments, total Biden appointees now 197

Bonus: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that transgender health insurance exclusions were illegal

Week 19

Biden wiped out the student loan debt of 160,000 more Americans, 

After the supreme court struck down Biden’s original broader forgiveness plan, the administration has patchworked different plans together to cancel $167 billion for 4.75 million Americans so far

Dept. of Justice announced it is suing Ticketmaster for being a monopoly

EPA announced $225 million in new funding to improve drinking and wastewater for tribal communities

Will help with testing for forever chemicals, and replacing of lead pipes as well as sustainability projects

$300 million in grants to clean up former industrial sites known as "Brownfield" sites, which will be cleaned and redeveloped into community assets for 200 projects across 178 communities

Announced a historic expansion of the program to feed low income kids over the summer holidays- rolling out SUN Bucks, a $120 per child grocery benefit

Harris builds on her work in Africa to announce a plan to give 80% of Africa internet access by 2030, up from just 40% today

Senate confirmed another 4 federal judge lifetime appointments, total Biden appointees now 201

Biden's Judges have been historically diverse. 64% of them are women and 62% of them are people of color.

Week 20

$900 million to school districts across the country to replace diesel fueled school buses with cleaner alternatives

For the first time the federal government released guidelines for Voluntary Carbon Markets- a system by which companies offset their carbon emissions by funding project to fight climate change like investing in wind or solar power

IRS announced it'll take its direct file program nationwide in 2025 to allow people to file for free through the IRS website instead of paying for programs like TurboTax

White House announced steps to boost nuclear energy in America- the single largest green energy source in the country accounting for 19% of America's total energy. This is a key part of the administration's strategy to reach a carbon free electricity sector by 2035

$824 million in new funding to protect livestock health and combat H5N1 virus to both protect the animals and make sure it doesn't spread to the human population and become another pandemic situation

announced a partnership with 21 states to help supercharge America's aging energy grid

$343 million to update 8 of America's oldest and busiest transportation stations for disability accessibility

$179 million for drought resilience projects in California and Utah and $242 million for expanding water access in California, Colorado and Washington

$150 million for affordable housing for tribal communities

Secretary of State pledged $135 million to help Moldavia, a tiny state bordering Ukraine which has long been dependent on Russian energy, but thanks to US investment is breaking away from Russia and moving forward with EU membership

US and Guatemala launched the "Youth With Purpose” initiative as part of the administration’s efforts to improve life in Central America. The initiative will train 25,000 young Guatemalans and connect them with with service projects throughout the country

Bonus: This week, May 31st 2024, was the last day of the Affordable Connectivity Program which helped 23 million Americans connect to the internet. Despite repeated calls from President Biden Republicans in Congress have refused to act to renew the program

The Biden Administration has invested $90 Billion high-speed internet investments. Such as $42.45 billion for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, $1 billion for the The Middle Mile program laying 12,000 miles of regional fiber networks, and distributed nearly 30,000 connected devices to students and communities, including more than 3,600 through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program

Week 21

$480 million in safety grants to all 50 states, DC, and all the US territories as part of Biden's goal to bring the number of traffic deaths to zero

Thanks to DoT safety actions, deaths involving heavy vehicles dropped by 8% from 2022 to 2023 and the dept. wants to keep pushing till the number is 0

$2.8 billion plan to protect public land and support local government Conservation Efforts for restoring national parks, public land, and historic sites, for funding Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools, and for conservation funding.

Dept. of Transportation announced that it had managed to get customers nearly $1 Billion dollars worth of flight reimbursements

$725 million to clean up legacy coal pollution

$700 million for long-term water conservation projects across the Lower Colorado River Basin

$123 million for fighting Youth Homelessness -- the 8th round of investment in Youth Homelessness totaling $440 million so far. 

Focused on innovative answers, like host homes, and kinship care models, with emphasis on creating equitable strategies to assist youth who are most vulnerable, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and youth with disabilities. 

part of administration’s goal of cutting homelessness by 25% by the end of 2025

Dept. of Agriculture announced a series of actions to strength Tribal food sovereignty to support native animal harvesting, the Tribal Forest Protection Act, and serving Indigenous foods in school meal programs

Bonus: the Bidens and Secretaries of Defense and State marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy France with a handful of surviving veterans

Week 22

Harris announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving to remove medical debt for people's credit score, improving the credit rating of up to 15 million Americans

EPA, Dept. of Agriculture, and FDA announced a joint "National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics" aimed to cut food waste by 50% by 2030

Biden signed with Ukrainian President Zelensky a ten-year US-Ukraine Security Agreement to help them win against Russia and meet the standards it will need to be ready for EU and NATO membership after the war

Biden also spearheaded efforts at the G7 meeting to secure $50 billion for Ukraine from the 7 top economic nations

Announced $500 million for the development of new non-injection vaccines against Covid  supporting a clinical trial of 10,000 people testing a vaccine in pill form and two other vaccines administered as nasal sprays

$404 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the region

$142 million for drought resilience and boosting water supplies which will provide about 40,000 acre-feet of annual recycled water, for about 160,000 people a year in California, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada and Texas. 

Also supporting 4 water desalination projects in Southern California. Desalination is proving to be an important tool used by countries with limited freshwater

Biden took the lead at the G7 on the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, a global program to connect the developing world to investment in its infrastructure from the G7 nations. 

Heavy investment in the Lobito Corridor, an economic zone that runs from Angola, through the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zambia. The PGI has helped connect the 3 nations by rail allowing land-locked Zambia and largely landlocked DRC access to Angolan ports. Also is investing in a $900 million solar farm in Angola, and got a $5 billion dollar investment from Microsoft for expanding digital access in Kenya, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 

Week 23

On the 12th anniversary of President Obama's DACA program President Biden announced a new pathway to legal status and eventual citizenship for Dreamers

Biden also announced protections for the undocumented spouses and children of US citizens

IRS announced that it'll close a tax loophole used by the ultra rich and corporations and believes it'll raise $50 billion in revenue

$850 million to monitor, measure, quantify and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector

Administration took steps to protect the nations Old Growth Forests, greatly restricting any logging against land owned by the federal government

Also touted the $1.4 billion invested in the 20% of America’s forests in urban settings such as parks through Biden’s Investing in America agenda

Released new rules tying government support for clean energy to good paying jobs. To qualify for massive tax credits, companies will have to offer higher wages and better conditions

Announced large reductions in student loan payments, and even a pause for some, starting in July

Biden Administration celebrated the 1 Millionth pension protected under the American Rescue Plan. 

Thanks to the Butch Lewis Act passed in 2021, the government stepped in to secure the pensions of 103,000 Bakery and Confectionery Union workers which were facing a devastating 45% cut- bringing to 1 million the number of workers and retirees whose pensions have been secured by the Biden Administration, which has supported 83 different pension funds, protecting them from an average of 37% cut.

$900 million for the next generation of nuclear power to invest in smaller and more flexible nuclear reactors with smaller footprints

Harris announced a $1.5 billion dollar aid package to Ukraine for repairing the devastated energy sector, emergency infrastructure repair, and humanitarian assistance

$315 million in new food, water, and malnutrition treatment aid for Sudan during their ongoing civil war which has led to nearly apocalyptic conditions in the country. USAID director warned that Sudan could quickly become the largest famine the world has seen since the 1980s when million people died over 2 years in Ethiopia. 

Bonus: Maryland Governor pardoned more than 175,000 people for marijuana convictions, mirroring Biden’s pardoning of people convicted of federal marijuana charges in 2022 and 2023

Week 24

US Surgeon General declared for the first time ever, firearm violence a public health crisis and recommended firearm restrictions

Harris announced the $85 million in first grants to be awarded through a groundbreaking program to remove barriers to building more housing

Under President Biden more housing units are under construction than at any time in the last 50 years. Plans underway to build 2 million affordable housing units and invest $258 billion in housing overall.

Biden pardoned all former US service members convicted under the US Military's ban on gay sex

$1.8 Billion in new infrastructure building across all 50 states, 4 territories and Washington DC, focusing on smaller, often community-oriented projects that span jurisdictions, like repairing damage from permafrost melting in Alaska or electrifying a bus fleet in Maine

$2.7 billion to support domestic sources of nuclear fuel

$127 million to 6 states to help clean up legacy pollution from orphaned oil and gas wells

$469 million to help remove dangerous lead from older homes

Bonus: Biden’s student loan forgiveness hit a snag this week when federal courts in Kansas and Missouri blocked some elements. The Administration also suffered a setback to its efforts to regulate smog causing pollution which were rejected by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. These legal setbacks underline the importance of courts and the ability to nominate judges and Justices over the next 4 years

Week 25

OSHA is putting forward the first ever federal safety regulation to protect workers from excessive heat in the workplace

 $1 Billion for 656 projects across the country aimed at helping local communities combat climate change fueled disasters like flooding and extreme heat

 flight cancellations at the lowest they've been in a decade

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg credited the Dept.'s new rules requiring automatic refunds for any cancellations or undue delays as driving the good numbers as well as the investment of $25 billion in airport infrastructure that was in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

$600 million in the 3rd round of funding to reconnect communities divided by highways and other Infrastructure projects over the years, which most often affected racial minorities and poor areas.

The Biden Administration approved its 9th offshore wind power project

$504 million for 12 new Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs which will support high tech manufacturing jobs, as well as training for 21st century jobs for millions of Americans

$200 million to support improved care for older Americans, particularly those with Alzheimer’s and related dementia, by training health care providers in best practices, integrating geriatric training into primary care, and providing education for families and caregivers on supporting aging people.

$176 million to help support the development of a mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccine

As part of the government's efforts to be ready before the next major pandemic, Moderna is working on an mRNA vaccine focused on the H5 and H7 avian influenza viruses, which experts fear could spread to humans and cause a Covid like event

Week 26

IRS announced it had managed to collect $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth tax cheats through a program focused on persons with more than $1 million in yearly income who owed more than $250,000 in unpaid taxes. 

Thanks to funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is able to undertake more enforcement against rich tax cheats after years of Republicans cutting the agency's budget, which they hope to do again if they win power this election.

$244 million dollar investment in the federal government’s registered apprenticeship program- focused on getting well paying blue collar opportunities to people

Republicans pledge to cut it, even as employers struggle to find qualified workers

$11 billion dollars in grants for the The Hudson River Tunnel- the most complex Infrastructure project in the nation would link New York and New Jersey by rail under the Hudson, improving and speeding connection throughout the Northeast

$1.7 billion to save or reopen auto factories and convert them for electric vehicles, which will save 15,000 skilled union worker jobs, and created 2,900 new high-quality jobs

Dept. of Housing and Urban Development reached a settlement over racial discrimination with the organization responsible for setting standards and qualifications for real estate appraisers, The Appraisal Foundation. 

Black and Latino home owners are far more likely to have their houses under valued than whites. Under the settlement with HUD, TAF (which last year was 94.7% White and 0.6% Black) will have to take serious steps to increase diversity and remove structural barriers to diversity.

Dept. of Justice disrupted an effort by the Russian government to influence public opinion through AI bots, shutting down nearly 1,000 twitter accounts linked to a Russian Bot farm focused on boosting support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

$1.5 billion to help local authorities buy made in America buses, 80% of which will go toward zero or low-emission technology busses

Biden, Canadian Prime Minister, Finnish President signed agreement on the arctic to boost production of ice breaking ships and counter China’s dominance of that market and Russia's aggressive push into the arctic waters

$1.1 billion for greater rail safety to minimize rail crossings where possible and improve safety measures where not.

$120 million to help tribal communities prepare for climate disasters

$100 million in additional funds to help feed low income kids over the summer

If fully implemented SUN Bucks could help 30 million kids, but many Republican governors have refused the funding.

$100 million to the UN World Food Program to deliver urgently needed food assistance in Gaza. This will bring the total humanitarian aid given by the US to the Palestinian people since the war started in October 2023 to $774 million, the single largest donor nation

Senate confirmed the first Latina judge to serve on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, bringing the administration’s total judge appointments to 202.

Biden has appointed more black women to federal judgeships, more Hispanic judges, more Asian American judges, and more LGBT judges than any other President, including Obama's full 8 years in office. President Biden has also focused on backgrounds, appointing a record breaking number of former public defenders to judgeships, as well as labor and civil rights lawyers.

Bonus: At the NATO summit in Washington DC President Biden joined 32 allies in the Ukraine compact which confirmed their support for keeping a free and Democratic Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. World leaders praised President Biden's experience and leadership during the NATO summit

Week 27

Biden announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion dollars worth of student loan debt, canceling the debt of 35,000 public service workers, such as teachers, nurses, and firefighters

After the supreme court struck down Biden’s original broader forgiveness plan, the administration has patchworked different plans together to cancel $168.5 billion for 4.8 million Americans so far

Biden announced actions to lower housing costs, make more housing available and called on Congress to prevent rent hikes

The plan calls for landlords who raise the rent by more than 5% a year to face losing major important tax benefits, the average rent has gone up by 21% since 2021

Also told federal agencies to see how unused property could be used for housing

Bureau of Land Management plans on building 15,000 affordable housing units on public land in southern Nevada

 USPS is examining 8,500 unused properties across America to be repurposed for housing

HHS is finalizing a new rule to make it easier to use federal property to house the homeless

Calling on lower levels of Gov to do so as well

$5 billion to replace or restore major bridges across the country

Executive Order aimed at boosting Latino college attendance through allowing institutions with 25% or more Latino students to more easily take advantage of federal programs and expand their reach to better serve students and boost Hispanic enrollment nationwide

$325 million in grants for housing and community development in 7 cities which have collectively pledged to develop over 6,500 new mixed-income units, including replacing 2,677 severely distressed public housing units. The cities will invest $2.65 billion – so that every $1 in HUD funds will generate $8.65 in additional resources

Biden took extensive new actions on immigration 

Allowing foreign born spouses and step children of American citizens without legal status to apply for it without having to leave the country

Easing Visa rules to allow Dreamers to get work visas to give them legal status and a pathway to citizenship

New rule expanding the federal TRIO program (which supports low-income and first generation college students transition from high school to college) to cover Dreamers

Plans to double number of immigration lawyers available to those going through immigration court

$160 million in grants to support Clean U.S. Manufacturing of Steel and Other Construction Materials

$203 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Sudan where 25 million people are facing acute food insecurity due to war

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put forward a new rule that would better regulate popular paycheck advance products to require lenders to tell customers up front about any and all fees and charges, as well as cracking down on deceptive "tipping" options

Week 28

$4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction Grants to support community-driven solutions to fight climate change, and accelerate America’s clean energy transition

Administration announced a plan to phase out the federal government's use of single use plastics in food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035

White House hosted a summit on super pollutants with the goals of better measuring them and dramatically reducing them

$325 million in grants for climate justice, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, 

to help weatherize and energy-efficiency upgrade homes for 35 tribes, to install onsite wastewater treatment systems throughout 17 Black Belt counties in Alabama, to support urban forestry, expanding tree canopy in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and more 

Dept. of Interior approved 3 new solar projects on public land

Pledged $667 million to global Pandemic Fund to support Pandemic prevention, and readiness in low income nations who can't do it on their own

$240 million investment in tribal fisheries in the Pacific Northwest

IRS announced that thanks to funding from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, it'll be able to digitize much of its operations allowing taxpayers to retrieve all their tax related information from one source

IRS also announced that New Jersey will be joining the direct file program in 2025. In 2024 140,000 Americans were able to file this way, they collectively saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees, claiming $90 million in returns

Republicans in Congress lead by Congressmen Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina have put forward legislation to do away with direct file

Bonus: American law enforcement arrested co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada

Week 29

Biden announced his plan to reform the Supreme Court and make sure no President is above the law. After the conservative majority ruled Trump has "absolute immunity" from any prosecution for "official acts" while president, Biden called for a constitutional amendment clarifying that presidents aren’t above the law

In response to a wide ranging corruption scandal involving Justice Clarence Thomas, Biden also called on Congress to pass a legally binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court, and endorsed the idea of term limits for the Justices

Biden Administration sent out an email to everyone who has a federal student loan informing them of upcoming debt relief options, mostly targeting run-away interest or those who have been making payments for over 20 years

Announced that the federal government would step in and protect the pension of 600,000 Teamsters, just the latest in a number of such pension protections the President has done in office.

Biden and Harris oversaw the dramatic release of American hostages from Russia in the largest prisoner exchange in post-soviet history at 24 people

A new Biden Administration rule banning discrimination against LGBT students takes effect, but faces major Republican resistance and lawsuits delaying implementation in red states

$2 billion to black and minority farmers who were the victims of historic discrimination and were improperly denied the loans they needed

Biden Administration took an important step to stop the criminalization of poverty by changing child safety guidelines so that poverty alone isn't grounds for taking a child into foster care

Administration agreed to a plan by the Democratic Governor of North Carolina to forgive the medical debt of 2 million people in the state (which has the 3rd highest medical debt in the nation)

Dept. of Transportation put forward a new rule requiring airlines to seat parents next to their children, with no extra cost

$3.5 billion to combat homelessness in grants to local organizations and programs

Pennsylvania and New Mexico would be joining the IRS' direct file program for 2025\

Bonus: President Biden welcomed families of released hostages into the oval office to call their loved ones on the plane home [video in week 29 post]

Week 30

$325 million to support State, territorial, DC, and tribal governments in buying new land for parks and outdoor recreation sites and the expansion and refurbishment of existing sites

$171 million to update and replace Birmingham, Alabama’s aging water system and remove all lead pipes

$2.2 billion in investments in the national power grid to help boost resiliency in the face of extreme weather

Justice Dept. won its massive antitrust case against Google, ruling it an illegal monopoly

Also has ongoing antitrust suits against Apple, while the Federal Trade Commission is suing Facebook and Amazon for their monopolist practices

$3.9 billion in direct aid to Ukraine to make up for massive budget shortfalls caused by the war with Russia. 

To help pay teachers, emergency workers, and other public employees, as well helping displaced persons, low-income families, and people with disabilities

$190 million to improve air quality and energy upgrades in K-12 schools

$424 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Due to ongoing conflict and food insecurity, 25 million Congolese are in need of humanitarian aid

Senate confirmed 3 federal judge nominees, total Biden appointees now 205

Week 31

Announced the successful conclusion of the first negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. Savings on these first ten drugs are between 38% and 79% and will collectively save seniors $1.8 billion dollars in out of pocket costs

For years Medicare was not allowed to directly negotiate prices with drug companies leaving seniors to pay high prices. Thanks to Inflation Reduction Act, passed with no Republican support, this long time Democratic goal is now a reality

This is on top of capping insulin costs at $35/month and all out of pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year starting for Medicare recipients

Administration launched crackdown of companies wasting consumer time

Proposed rules that require companies to make canceling a subscription or service as easy as signing up for it

Requiring automatic refunds for canceled flights

Working on rules to require companies to allow customers to speak to a real person with just one button click

Working on rules around chatbots, particularly their use from banks

Working on rules to ban companies from posting fake reviews, suppressing honest negative reviews, or paying for positive reviews

Taking steps to require insurance companies to allow health claims to be submitted online

The Bidens announced further funding as part of the President's Cancer Moonshot which aims to cut the number of cancer deaths in half over the next 25 years

Harris announced a plan to lower housing costs- offering $25,000 to first time buyers for down-payments, building of 3 million more housing units, and $40 billion innovation fund to spur innovative housing construction- all in addition to Biden's calls for a $10,000 tax credit for first time buyers and to punish landlords who raise the rent by over 5%

Biden Designates a national monument at the site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot, where thousands of white residents destroyed black homes and businesses and 17 people died. As a direct result of the riot, black community leaders and white allies met a few months later in New York and founded the NAACP

$775 million to help cap and clean up orphaned oil and gas wells

Harris announced plans to ban price-gouging in the food and grocery industries

In response to this pressure from Democrats on price gouging, the supermarket giant Kroger proposed dropping prices by a billion dollars

Week 32

$521 million to help increase the number of electric vehicle charging ports

Dept. of The Interior announced the first ever lease for off-shore wind power in Oregon

Finalized the protection of 28 million acres of public lands across Alaska

$558 Million for improving maternal health

Announced that Maine will join the IRS' Direct File program for tax year 2025 which allows taxpayers to file, for free, simple returns with the IRS instead of paying for services like TurboTax

Week 33

$7.3 billion in clean energy investment for rural communities

Administration announced a historic 10th offshore wind project, this one in Maryland

Executive Order aimed at supporting and expanding unions directing all federal agencies to take steps to recognize unions, not interfere with the formation of unions and reach labor agreements on federally supported projects

$1 billion to make local roads safer to 354 local communities across America to improve roadway safety and prevent deaths and serious injuries

Since National Roadway Safety Strategy launched in 2022 traffic fatalities have decreased for 9 straight quarters

$430 million to support America's aging hydropower- most dams were built in the New Deal Era, and need to be updated for safety

$300 million to help support tribal nations, and US territories cut climate pollution and boost green energy

investing $179 million in literacy to help support states research, develop, and implement evidence-based literacy interventions to help students achieve key literacy milestones

US government secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua jailed by the dictator there since political protests started in 2018

Justice Dept. announced the disruption of a major effort by Russia to interfere with the 2024 US Elections. A Russian propaganda network spent $10 million to help spread Russian propaganda and help sway the election in favor of Trump and the Republicans as well as disrupting American society

Harris outlined her plan for Small Businesses at a campaign stop in New Hampshire- she wants to expand from $5,000 to $50,000 tax incentives for startup expenses which would help 25 million new small businesses over 4 years

Week 34

Biden marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (which was written by him as a senator). He announced $690 million in grants to support survivors of gender-based violence.

Announced a new rule to force insurance companies to treat mental health care the same as medical care

Announced that 50 million Americans, 1 in every 7, have gotten health insurance through Obamacare's marketplaces

IRS announced that it has recovered $1.3 billion in back taxes from wealthy tax dodgers. The Inflation Reduction Act funded the IRS to chase high income tax cheats, which Republicans have been underfunding for years to hinder the ability to make the wealthy pay their fair share. IRS has collected over a Billion Dollars in back taxes from the richest Americans, so far this year

Dept. of The Interior and White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi highlighted the 41 renewable energy projects approved on public land by the administration

$236 million to help fight forest fires and restore landscapes damaged by recent wildfires

$157 million in wetland conservation focused on protecting bird habitats

Senate confirmed 4 federal judge nominees, total Biden appointees now 209

Week 35

$1.3 billion in new funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities which have proven to be far better at boosting the long term economic prospects of graduates than non-HBCU colleges. Bulk of funding will go directly to helping students afford college.

Dept. of Transportation celebrated 60,000 infrastructure projects funding by the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

From major multi-state projects to small town railway crossings every project was lead by a local community in need not a make-work project dreamed up in Washington

Over $3 billion to support the battery sector in 25 projects across 14 states supporting over 12,000 jobs

Maine and Rhode Island both launched a partnership with the federal government to help save low income families money on their utility bills

$156 million to help bring solar power to low-income New Mexico residents as part of the "Solar for All" project to help low-income people afford the switch over to solar power

Announced the first ever leases for wind power in the Gulf of Maine

Senate confirmed 2 federal district judges and 1 appointment to the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, total Biden appointees now 212

Week 36

Announced new actions to curb gun violence at the one year anniversary of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention such as an Executive Order combating machine gun conversion devices, 3-D printed guns, and addresses active shooter drills at schools

One year anniversary of the American Climate Corps has seen 15,000 young people connected to well paid jobs in climate resilience. A new Environmental Justice Climate Corps program was announced which will connect 250 American Climate Corps members with local communities and help them achieve environmental justice projects

Announced that 4.2 million small business owners and self-employed people get their health insurance through the ACA marketplace. The self-employed are 3 times as likely as other Americans to use the marketplaces for their insurance

Pressed freight railroad companies to close the gap and offer paid sick time to all their employees. Under Biden's leadership the number of Class I freight railroad workers with paid sick days increased from 5% to 90%. Now he is pushing to get it for the last 10%.

$965 million to help school districts buy clean energy buses

The administration took another step in its historic efforts to protect the Colorado River System by signing 5 water conservation agreements with local water authorities in California and Arizona conserving over 717,000 acre-feet of water by 2026

$254 million to help support local parks, the largest such investment in history

$1.5 billion to help combat opioid addiction and prevent opioid overdose deaths

$466.5 million in food assistance and development worldwide this year, including helping to feed 1.2 million children and helping 200,000 farmers shift to climate-smart agriculture in low-income countries

First Lady announced at UN meeting a partnership with USAID and UNICEF to end childhood exposure to lead worldwide

Senate approved another federal judge, total Biden appointees now 213

Week 37

Biden and Harris have led the federal response to Hurricane Helene earning praise from both Republican and Democratic local leaders. Thousands of federal workers have given out over 8 million meals, and 7 million liters of water. Harris announced the federal government will reimburse state and local government 100% of the costs from Helene

A strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association, that briefly shut down ports, ended in a tentative deal to give them a 62% raise, after Biden directed the Secretary of Transportation to take the lead pressuring management to make a deal with the workers

Harris announced new actions to help those struggling with medical debt- 

Requiring debt collectors to confirm debts are valid and accurate before engaging in collection actions

Cracking down on debt collectors that collect on debt that is not owed by patients

DoD announced that it was reducing pricing for civilians who get medical treatment at DoD hospitals

Crack down on tax-exempt hospitals who are required by law to offer financial assistance but often do not

$62 Billion in infrastructure funding for 2025 for roads, bridges, high speed rail, ports, airports, and high speed internet

$1 Billion dollars of investment in America's passenger rail future to help expand and modernize intercity passenger rail nationwide. (Coming on top of $8.2 billion in investments announced in December 2023)

$2.8 billion joint project between Dept.s of Energy and Agriculture to bring 100% carbon pollution-free energy to the rural Midwest

IRS announced that 30 million Americans, across 24 states will qualify for free direct filing of their taxes in 2025

$7.7 billion in funding for Climate-Smart Practices on Agricultural Lands

$1.5 billion in investments in transmission infrastructure to help ensure our grid is reliable and resilient

Week 38

Biden announced a new EPA rule that will require all lead pipes in America's drinking water systems to be replace within 10 years

Harris plans to expand Medicare to cover home health care. Currently long term care is only covered by Medicaid, the health program for the poor, so people must spend all their savings before they can qualify. This would allow more seniors to stay in their homes and would be a gamechanger for disabled Americans, who also get coverage from Medicare

Medicare released a preliminary list of 101 generic drugs which it would cover that would cost $2 or less for a month for enrollees. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare will be allowed to pay for generic drugs, which was long resisted by drug companies

Administration’s Domestic Policy Advisor announced they had blown past goal of hiring 250,000 student support staff for 2024, with 320,000 tutors, mentors, student success coaches, postsecondary transition coaches, and support coordinators nationwide

$420 million to help get rid of lead paint and other lead hazards from homes

Week 39

Announced they had forgiven the student loan debt of 1 million public sector workers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which was passed in 2007 but almost impossible to access until the Biden Administration’s overhauls

Federal Trade Commission finalizes its "one-click to cancel" rule which requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up for it

Announced there are 1.7 million more construction and manufacturing jobs and 700,000 more jobs in the transportation sector since the start of the administration, and 400,000 more union workers than in 2021. 

60,000 Infrastructure projects across the nation have been funded by the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

$2 billion to protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather

$125 million to help upgrade older diesel engines to low or zero-emission solutions

Dept. of The Interior and State of California broke ground on the Salton Sea Species Conservation Habitat Project restoring and protecting a total of 5,000 acres of land in California’s largest lake

$900 Million in investment in next generation nuclear power, developing smaller lighter reactors which in theory should be easier to deploy

The federal government took two big steps to increase the rights of Alaska natives. 

The Departments of The Interior and Agricultural finalized an agreement to strengthen Alaska Tribal representation on the Federal Subsistence Board

Dept. of Interior  signed 3 landmark co-stewardship agreements with Alaska Native Tribes

$860 million to help support solar energy in Puerto Rico

Dept. of Interior announced it had approved the Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project, a major step forwards towards geothermal energy of public lands and the goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035

Bonus: Biden meets with a Kindergarten Teacher whose student loans were forgiven this week [video in week 39 link]

Week 40

Biden issued the first presidential apology on behalf of the federal government to America's Native American population for the Indian boarding school policy

Proposed a new rule which would make contraceptive medication (the pill) free over the counter with most Insurance

EPA announced its finalized rule strengthening standards for lead paint dust in pre-1978 housing and child care facilities. The new standards set the lowest level of lead particle that can be identified by a lab as the standard for requiring lead remediation

$50 million dollar fine against American Airlines for its treatment of disabled passengers and their wheelchairs. Half the fine will go to replacing such damaged wheelchairs

Biden administration has leveled a historic # of fines against airlines ($225 million) for their failures. Also published an Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, passed a rule on accessible lavatories on aircraft, and is drafting a rule to make airlines replace lost or damaged wheelchairs with equal equipment at once

$430 million dollars to help boost domestic clean energy manufacturing in former coal communities in 15 different towns

$4.2 billion in new infrastructure investment for 44 projects across the country

$200 million to replace aging natural gas pipes saving the average consumer over $900 on gas bills and removing 1,000 metric tons of methane pollution, annually

$244 million to address legacy pollution in Pennsylvania coal country

Data shows that President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (passed with Vice-President Harris' tie breaking vote) has saved seniors $1 billion dollars on out-of-pocket drug costs by capping yearly out of pocket costs and allowing generic drugs and price negotiation

Announced new proposed rule to bring student debt relief for 8 million struggling borrowers

Despite roadblocks from Republicans at all levels, the administration has managed to bring student loan forgiveness to 5 million Americans so far through different programs patchworked together. The new proposed rule to bring it to 8 million more can’t be finalized before 2025, so the election will decide its fate

$1.5 billion in 92 partner-driven conservation projects aimed at making farming more sustainable and environmentally friendly

What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did in 2024.

I started this project back in January and for most of a year, every week, I came up with the highlights of what the Biden-Harris Administration did. I did it because it felt to me our media and national conversion was broken, our government was doing huge things that it felt like almost no one knew about. It's amazing how often I struggled to find a single news source that wanted to cover a huge life changing project.

This is the last Friday before Election Day, and if you haven't already voted, take a minute to go back and look at the last 40 weeks, and decide, do you like these things or want literally the reverse on every issue.

Week 1 January 19th

Week 2 January 26th

Week 3 February 2nd

Week 4 February 9th

Week 5 February 16th

Week 6 February 23rd

Week 7 March 1st

Week 8 March 8th

Week 9 March 15th

Week 10 March 22nd

Week 11 March 29th

Week 12 April 5th

Week 13 April 12th

Week 14 April 19th

Week 15 April 26th

Week 16 May 3rd

Week 17 May 10th

Week 18 May 18th

Week 19 May 24th

Week 20 May 31st

Week 21 June 7th

Week 22 June 14th

Week 23 June 21st

Week 24 June 28th

Week 25 July 5th

Week 26 July 12th

Week 27 July 19th

Week 28 July 26th

Week 29 August 2nd

Week 30 August 9th

Week 31 August 16th

Week 32 August 30th

Week 33 September 6th

Week 34 September 13th

Week 35 September 20th

Week 36 September 27th

Week 37 October 4th

Week 38 October 11th

Week 39 October 18th

Week 40 October 25th

Feel free to reblog this or go back and reblog a favorite, one that impacts your life or the one from the week of your birthday, whatever.

and remember to read past the headlines and dig to find out what your government is up to, it might shock you how much is happening that no one talks about.

[openteq---123]

Optimizing Patient Care and Financial Management | OpenTeQ Technologies

It is critical to have effective scalable and secure management systems in the rapidly changing healthcare sector. Here's where the powerful cloud-based ERP software NetSuite comes into play. Leading NetSuite service provider OpenTeQ has played a key role in helping healthcare companies integrate NetSuite solutions, which have improved patient and financial management and streamlined operations. 

Streamlining Operations with NetSuite Customer Portal

A smooth communication system between patients and healthcare providers is one of the most important aspects of successful patient management. Patients can quickly examine billing information, make appointments, and access medical records via the NetSuite Customer Portal. This improves patient satisfaction by offering an easy-to-use platform that guarantees openness and prompt communication. By enabling healthcare organizations to give patients with a cutting-edge, digital experience, OpenTeQ's deployment of the NetSuite Customer Portal enhances patients' overall interaction with the healthcare provider. 

Financial Accuracy through NetSuite Health Check

Financial management in the healthcare industry is equally important as patient care. Even a tiny mistake in revenue recognition or billing might have serious repercussions. A NetSuite Health Check comes in very handy in this situation. OpenTeQ assists healthcare businesses in evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of their financial processes by providing customized NetSuite Health Check services. Healthcare providers may ensure accurate financial reporting, efficient cash flows, and regulatory compliance by doing routine NetSuite Health Checks, which can detect problems in their ERP system early. 

Customization for Healthcare-Specific Needs

Customized ERP systems are necessary to meet the specific needs of any healthcare organization. Healthcare providers can customize their NetSuite ERP system to fit their unique workflow thanks to OpenTeQ's expertise in NetSuite Customer Support & Customization. Healthcare providers can streamline their operational operations without any disruption thanks to NetSuite's customization features, which include the ability to integrate patient management software and change billing modules. In order to provide high-quality care and adhere to regulatory requirements, healthcare businesses must always have the resources available to them thanks to the NetSuite Customer Support & Customization service. 

Leveraging NetSuite Offshore Development

The modern healthcare environment is cost-sensitive, thus controlling operating expenses is essential. Healthcare organizations may save a lot of money and yet receive excellent ERP customization and support by using OpenTeQ's NetSuite Offshore Development services. The offshore teams at OpenTeQ offer NetSuite application development, support, and maintenance around-the-clock, allowing healthcare providers to concentrate on what really matters—providing patient care. Healthcare providers can access specialized teams through NetSuite Offshore Development, which eliminates the overhead expenses linked to on-site development. 

The Future of Healthcare with NetSuite

Because of its cloud-based architecture, scalability, and flexibility, NetSuite is an ideal choice for healthcare companies trying to enhance patient and financial results while streamlining their operations. With its proficiency in NetSuite Customer Portal, NetSuite Health Check, NetSuite Customer Support & Customization, and NetSuite Offshore Development, OpenTeQ is leading the way in assisting healthcare providers in utilizing technology to revolutionize their business practices.  

The needs on ERP systems will change as long as healthcare does. Healthcare providers can stay ahead of the curve and use NetSuite's robust capabilities to deliver better patient care and more accurate financial management by partnering with specialists like OpenTeQ.  

Reach out to OpenTeQ for expert NetSuite services tailored to your business needs. Contact Us: info@openteqgroup.com, +1-469 623 5106. 

[amymedbiller]

Discover the Cost-Effective Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing to India

**Title: Uncover the Cost-Effective Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing to India**

**Introduction:** Outsourcing medical billing to India has been gaining momentum in recent years, thanks ‌to the country’s skilled⁣ workforce, cost-effective services, and efficient processes. ⁤Medical billing can be a time-consuming and ⁤complex task ‍that requires attention ⁣to‌ detail and expertise. By outsourcing this task to India, healthcare providers can free up valuable time and resources to focus on patient care while⁢ saving money in the process.

**Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing to India:**

Here are some of the key⁤ benefits⁢ of outsourcing medical‌ billing to ⁣India:

1. **Cost-Effective Services:** One of the primary reasons⁣ healthcare providers ⁤choose to outsource ⁣medical billing to India is the significant cost savings. With lower‍ labor‍ costs and overhead expenses in India, outsourcing can provide cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality.

2. **Skilled ⁢Workforce:** India is‌ known for its skilled and well-educated workforce, particularly in the‍ fields of healthcare and technology. By outsourcing medical billing to India, healthcare providers can benefit from the expertise and experience of professionals who are well-versed in medical billing practices.

3. **Efficient Processes:** Outsourcing medical billing to India can help streamline the billing process and ensure timely payments. Indian outsourcing ⁣companies‍ often use cutting-edge technology and software to automate billing ‌processes, reducing⁢ errors and improving efficiency.

4. **Scalability:** Outsourcing medical billing to India allows healthcare providers to scale their operations based on demand. Whether you have a small practice⁤ or a large⁣ healthcare facility, outsourcing can provide flexible solutions that ⁤can adapt to your ⁤needs.

**Practical Tips⁤ for Outsourcing Medical Billing to India:**

If you are considering outsourcing medical billing to India, here are some practical tips to help you get started:

1. **Research Outsourcing Companies:** Take the time to research reputable outsourcing companies⁤ in India that specialize ‍in medical billing services. Look for‌ companies​ with a proven track record and positive ‌client testimonials.

2. **Communicate Clearly:** Communication is key when outsourcing medical billing to India. Clearly define your expectations,​ provide detailed guidelines,‍ and maintain open ‌lines of communication with your outsourcing ​partner.

3. **Data Security:** Ensure that the outsourcing company you choose has robust‌ data security measures in place ​to protect patient information and comply with healthcare regulations like⁣ HIPAA.

**Case Studies:**

Here are some real-life examples of healthcare providers who have benefited from outsourcing medical billing to India:

1. **ABC Medical Group:** By outsourcing their medical billing to an offshore company in India, ABC Medical Group was able to increase revenue by 20% and reduce billing errors by 30%.

2. **XYZ Healthcare:**‌ XYZ Healthcare, a large hospital system,‌ saved over $100,000⁣ annually by ​outsourcing their medical billing to a reputable​ outsourcing company in India.

**Firsthand Experience:**

“I was initially hesitant to outsource our medical billing to India, but the ⁣cost savings and efficiency gains have been truly remarkable. Our practice has seen a significant improvement in cash flow and an overall reduction in administrative burden.” – Dr. Smith, Family Physician.

**Conclusion:**

Outsourcing medical billing to India ‍can⁤ provide healthcare‍ providers with a cost-effective and ⁤efficient solution to streamline their revenue cycle⁤ management. By leveraging the skilled workforce, advanced technology, and expertise available‌ in India, healthcare providers can focus on delivering quality ​patient care while maximizing their financial performance.

Whether you are a solo practitioner or a large healthcare organization, outsourcing medical billing to India can offer numerous benefits that can‌ improve your bottom line and streamline⁢ your​ billing processes. Consider exploring outsourcing options in ‍India to see how it could benefit your​ practice or facility.

https://schoolsformedicalbilling.org/discover-the-cost-effective-benefits-of-outsourcing-medical-billing-to-india/