If Congress fails to do that, it really impairs our credit rating. We have to default on some obligation, whether its Treasuries or payments to Social Security recipients, Yellen said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Thats something America hasnt done since 1789. And we shouldnt start now. So weve not discussed what to do.

Yellen was pressed on whether the assumption of many market participants that the Treasury would prioritize payments of interest and principal on Treasury securities was accurate. That presumption is based on discussions between Federal Reserve and Treasury officials during the 2011 debt-limit showdown, revealed in a transcript of a Fed policymaker discussion.

My understanding I was at the Fed in 2011 is that this plan was never presented to the president and never approved, said Yellen, who was vice chair of the Fed at that time.

Asked whether she would now present that plan to prioritize Treasuries to the president, Yellen said, we are working full time to work with Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Thats where our focus is. 

No Discussion

Weve not discussed what to do, if that doesnt occur, with the president our focus is on getting it done, she said in the interview on the sidelines of a Group of Seven gathering of finance officials in Niigata, Japan.

Biden and congressional leaders are planning to resume discussions on the debt ceiling next week. They had been scheduled to meet Friday, but the session was postponed as Republican and Democratic staff members continue to negotiate. 

Biden and congressional Republicans have been locked in disagreement for weeks over raising the US federal governments $31.4 trillion borrowing limit. GOP leaders have demanded promises of future spending cuts before they approve a higher ceiling. Biden has insisted on a clean increase, with budget talks kept separate.

The Treasury chief said she hadnt spoken with banking executives about the debt limit within the last few weeks, but did so when she first advised Congress in January of the potential for the Treasury to exhaust its special accounting maneuvers to avoid running out of sufficient cash as soon as early June.

Yellen said she had, however, spoken with business leaders from different sectors of the economy more recently, and plans to meet with senior bankers next week.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has set up a war room looking at contingencies if the US debt limit isnt increased in time, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday.

Wall Street executives and American businesspeople have always spoken out about their concerns about the debt ceiling, Yellen said. We want to hear voices of people who will be affected by this.

The Treasury chief also reiterated her warning that a default would be an economic and financial catastrophe.

Yellen added that it was still unclear exactly when the Treasury would run out of funds. She told Congress earlier this month the Treasury could run out of available cash as soon as June 1.

I will update Congress as we have available information, Yellen said Friday. As we get closer I may be able to provide more refined guidance.

With assistance from Justin Solomon, Malcolm Scott and Joe Mayes.

Nithin Kamath, who leads the online brokerage firm Zerodha, valued at $2 billion, shared his thoughts in a series of tweets on Friday. He said his company had just created an internal A.I. policy to give staff clarity given the anxiety over job possible job losses due to the technology. 

The companys stance, he wrote, is that We will not fire anyone on the team just because we have implemented a new piece of technology that makes an earlier job redundant. 

Other major tech CEOs have not openly discussed firing their own workers, but they have said they would stop hiring for jobs they believe to be replaceable. IBM chief Arvind Krishna recently suggested his company would slow or suspend hiring for back-office jobs due to A.I. I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by A.I. and automation over a five-year period, he said. Bloomberg estimated that would translate to more than 7,000 lost jobs, though IBM later clarified to Fortune that instead of a blanket hiring pause the company would be very selective about hiring for jobs that arent client- or technology-focused.

Kamath added that while his Bangalore-based company hadnt found any AI use cases back in 2021 despite significant hype, now things were different. 

With recent breakthroughs in AI, we finally think AI will take away jobs and can disrupt society, he wrote. 

In March, Ethan Mollick, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, gave A.I. tools 30 minutes to work on a business project. He said the results were superhuman. He added he would have needed a team and maybe days of work to do all that the A.I. tools did in 30 minutes. 

Kamath worries about the impact this will have on society.

Many companies will likely let go of employees and blame it on AI, he wrote. In the process, companies will earn more and make their shareholders wealthier, worsening wealth inequality. This isnt a good outcome for humanity.

Unquestionably, many of the tasks in white-collar land will look very different in the next five to 10 years, Mustafa Suleyman, who cofounded the A.I. lab DeepMind, told attendees of the GIC Bridge Forum in San Francisco this week. There are going to be a serious number of losers [and they] will be very unhappy, very agitated. 

Kamath called upon companies to give employees time to adapt to the new reality. 

Itll take a few years for us to see the real impact of AI on humanity, he wrote. Businesses with financial freedom should, if nothing else, give their teams that helped build the business time to adapt. I know some of this might sound weird coming from the CEO

The congestion pricing plan the first of its kind in the US is expected to get final approval next month. It will charge E-ZPass motorists driving south of 60th Street, the citys central business district, as much as $23. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the citys subways, buses and commuter rail lines, released on Friday a final environmental assessment of the plan that includes new concessions for low-income motorists as well as Uber and Lyft drivers.

The transit agency anticipates the US Department of Transportation will give final approval after a 30-day public review period, a significant milestone that will allow construction to begin on the tolling gantries. 

Congestion pricing means less traffic, cleaner air, safer streets, better transit, Janno Lieber, the MTAs chief executive officer, said during a media briefing about the plan on Thursday.

MTA officials expect congestion pricing to bring in $1 billion in new revenue a year that the agency will bond against to raise $15 billion. Those funds will help finance major capital projects like expanding the Second Avenue Subway to Harlem, updating the subway signal system and adding more elevators and escalators to stations to make them accessible. 

A six-member Traffic Mobility Review Board will determine the specific tolling structure and discounts or exemptions. Drivers using an E-ZPass may pay as much as $23 during peak hours and $17 during off-peak periods. But the final environmental assessment includes concessions. 

Passenger cars, taxis and for-hire vehicles like Uber and Lyft would only be charged once a day. 

The MTAs solution for rideshare would be an infeasible logistical nightmare, a spokesperson for Lyft said in an emailed statement. Instead of burdening drivers further, the MTA should acknowledge that our industry has for years already paid them a congestion pricing fee and focus on ensuring the program is funded fairly across all who use our roadways.

A spokesperson for Uber declined to comment. 

For the first five years of the program, E-ZPass drivers making less than $50,000 a year would get a 25% discount starting on their 11th trip within a calendar month. The MTA estimates there are about 16,000 drivers in the area who would qualify for that reduced rate, Lieber said.

Residents of the Manhattan district with incomes below $60,000 will be granted a state tax credit. The final review also includes lower overnight tolls than what the MTA projected in August, an attempt to encourage truck drivers to pay the new fee rather than bypass Manhattan and drive through the Bronx. 

Officials estimate the tolling plan will reduce the amount of daily vehicles entering the district by as much as 20% and help boost mass-transit ridership, according to the final environmental review. 

The MTA needs the additional riders. While subway usage has steadily increased since its pandemic-lows, weekday subway ridership is about 70% of 2019 levels, according to MTA data. And systemwide ridership may only reach 80% of pre-pandemic usage by the end of 2026, the transit agency estimates.

While New York Governor Kathy Hochul backs the plan, not everyone is on board. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has pledged to stop its implementation. He believes New Jersey residents shouldnt have to pay for the MTAs revenue troubles. US Representatives Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from the New York City borough of Staten Island, and Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, say congestion pricing would increase pollution and traffic in their districts while adding another toll for their constituents.

Lieber said the tolling initiative may face lawsuits.

We studied the traffic intersections going down almost to Philadelphia, every possible air quality scenario, all the social justice and physical impacts, Lieber said. Im confident that if anyone challenges this, this is going to stand up and that were going to implement congestion pricing for New York.

With assistance from Sam Hall and Jackie Davalos.

Whether Medicare will or wont cover certain health care costs may now depend on whether you are in Traditional Medicare or a private insurers Medicare Advantage plan, want remote monitoring for a chronic condition, and need rehab in a skilled nursing facility.

The Trump administration initially declared the coronavirus a public health emergency in January 2020. Although COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States last year and more than 1,000 Americans die from it weekly, the new phase of the pandemic has led the U.S. government to relax its health care rules.

Heres what Medicare beneficiaries need to know about their new world of health insurance coverage:

Higher costs for Medicare Advantage out-of-network doctor visits

During the public health emergency, Medicare Advantage plans werent allowed to charge more if members saw out-of-network physicians. But those protections will end, and people will once again either have to pay more or not have coverage depending on their Medicare Advantage plan, says Juliette Cubanski, the San Francisco-based deputy director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, a health policy research and news nonprofit.

If people started seeing a provider whos not in their Medicare Advantage plans network and expect to continue to see that provider, they may face the reality that it will come with a higher price tag, she adds.

Continued coverage for telehealth (mostly)

The good news is that Medicare beneficiaries receiving telehealth will be able to do so through at least December 31, 2024, says Erin Whaley, health sciences partner at the Troutman Pepper law firm in Roanoke, Va.

Telehealth is largely unaffected by the end of the public health emergency because of a 2023 law extending Medicares telehealth coverage through next year. So, youll still be covered for a telehealth appointment, including one with an audiologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist or clinical psychologist.

But there are two exceptions.

One is for remote monitoring for chronic and acute conditions. Medicare beneficiaries are now only covered for telehealth monitoring of, say, a continuous glucose monitor for diabetes if they are already patients of the doctor providing this care, notes Whaley.

Thats changing back to the pre-pandemic rules, where you could only get remote monitoring if you were an established patient, she says. If you dont have a doctor for remote monitoring, you now need to find one to become an established patient, she adds.

The other exception: Medicare no longer pays for routine home care through telehealth under the programs hospice benefit, according to CMS.

The end of free at-home COVID-19 tests

The main area where people on Medicare are likely to notice changes is if they go to get COVID-19 tests from a pharmacy or do at-home testing, says Cubanski.

Since April 2022, Medicare beneficiaries could get eight free at-home COVID-19 tests a month. Now, Medicare will no longer cover at-home tests for people in Traditional Medicare, Cubanski says. A KFF analysis found the average cost of an at-home rapid COVID-19 test is now $11.

The convenience of at-home testing has really enabled people to test whenever they want to get together with their friends or family and knowwith whatever certainty you get from the at-home testwhether or not you are infectious and maybe potentially risking exposing other people in your life who may be immunocompromised or have other conditions that predispose them to serious illness if they get infected.

Each Medicare Advantage plan, however, will decide whether to keep offering these tests for members. Its not a requirement, its an option, says Cubanski. I think CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] is certainly encouraging Medicare Advantage plans to continue to offer this as a supplemental benefit. It seems reasonable to think that a lot of plans covering it as an over-the-counter benefit will continue to do so.

New rules for COVID-19 PCR and antigen tests

Medicare will still cover COVID-19 PCR and antigen tests given in approved laboratories and ordered by doctors.

People on Traditional Medicare still wont have to pay for these tests. But they may have to pay for the doctor visit resulting in the prescription for the test, Cubanski says.

Some Medicare Advantage plans may charge members for PCR and antigen tests and associated doctor visits or require the tests be done by in-network doctors.

No changes for COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19 vaccines will still generally be free to people on Traditional Medicare, as long as the U.S. government stockpile has them and your doctor takes Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans wont charge for COVID-19 vaccines either, if you go to one of their in-network providers.

When the government supply of COVID-19 vaccines runs out and the supply shifts to the private sector, the beneficiary cost will still be zero, says Cubanski.

Paxlovid: free for now

Paxlovid, an antiviral drug use to treat people with COVID-19 will still be freeas long as the governments supply lasts.

When the Paxlovid stockpile ends, Medicare beneficiaries with Part D Medicare prescription drug plans will be able to get the treatment for free through December 2024. But those without Part D plans may start owing co-pays for the treatment.

Concern about the three-day rule

Experts at LeadingAge, a group representing over 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers, say a big change for some beneficiaries with Traditional Medicare is the return of whats known as the three-day rule.

During the public health emergency, Medicare waived the rule that required people be admitted into hospitals for at least three consecutive days before Medicare would cover a subsequent stay in a skilled nursing facility for, say, rehab.

The waiver, Whaley says, was partly to avoid overcrowding in hospitals during the pandemic. It sometimes helped Medicare beneficiaries with injuries from falls get rehab treatment in skilled nursing facilities.

But the three-day rule is now back.

As a result, you could be paying fully out of pocket for care in a skilled nursing facility because you didnt meet the minimum stay requirement before you were discharged, says Cubanski. (Medicare Advantage members are excluded from the three-day rule if they go to in-network facilities.)

The three required days in the hospital dont include days when a patient is in the medical center under observation, but not technically admitted. Thats why its really important for people to understand, when theyre in the hospital, Is this day an observation day or an actual inpatient day? says Cubanski.

Requiring a hospital stay of three days or longer before being transferred to a skilled rehab facility, critics say, delays necessary care and can lead to extra out-of-pocket costs for people in Medicare. LeadingAge says lengthening hospital stays can be challenging for older people, especially ones with cognitive impairments.

The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living told Skilled Nursing News in a statement: For years we have advocated to eliminate this confusing policy barrier by recognizing observation stays as qualifying stays for the purposes of the three-day stay requirement or eliminating the three-day requirement all together.

LeadingAge has urged the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make permanent the waiver of the three-day requirement and Congress to end the requirement entirely.

In the more than half-century since the requirement was adopted, a growing body of evidence and experience has proven that automatically requiring a three-day inpatient hospital stay is unreasonable, unnecessary, irresponsible and inequitable, LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a statement sent to Congress and HHS.

The end of the three-day rule, some experts say, will lead some Medicare beneficiaries to go from the hospital to home care rehab, since Medicare often pays for that.