And how many of us have gotten contrary, correct information from knowledgeable Medicare reps but have not posted here because it is so obvious that your assessment does not seem correct? Just saying!Well I knew I was not the only one who was getting this information directly from medicare. If you find anything in writing to substantiate this from your visit to the local medicare office (I do not have one nearby), it would certainly help to clear up the confusion that many have here.I just enquired about this very topic this past Thursday with a Medicare representative and she did in fact also say that there would be no penalty down the road should I decide to delay my enrollment into Medicare Part B. I turned 65 in February of 2024 and was all set to sign up penalty free during this general enrollment period until that information was provided and the rep actually questioned me about the need for part B when I had really good insurance through the FEHB now for me the PSHB. I also made it known I was retired for several years and on a FEHB plan ever since. I can’t find anything on this rule in writing so I may pay a visit to a local office and see what they say. At the same time though I may not sign up at all because I’ve always felt the plans provided were good enough especially with the catastrophic limits of 6- 6,500.
Like I mentioned I turned 65 on Feb of 2024 so my initial enrollment period ended the end of May. The end of May going forward would start the clock for any late enrollment penalty which goes beyond 1 year out. Being the general enrollment period is January thru March I can avoid any late penalties. It doesn’t start with you Birthday month as far as penalties goes in this situation. I would defiantly want something in writing before I pushed my enrollment beyond this General Enrollment period.
Several weeks ago I had talked to one Medicare rep about the screw up with Silver Scripts/GEHA mistakenly enrolling me and my wife in Part D. (The screw-up is mentioned here: viewtopic.php?p=8198151#p8198151) In the course of that conversation, this rep told me she could disenroll me over the phone from Part D. I said great, let’s do it. Five minutes later on the phone with me she said she keyed in the correct information on her keyboard but the system would not process the disenrollment. This rep says she had to get her supervisor with higher level authorization to process the disenrollment.
New supervisory rep gets on the phone with me and starts by telling me, "you’re not in Part B and if you enroll now (10 years after I first became eligible), I’d pay late penalty fees for Part B and D." I tell her I don’t want to enroll in Part B (my wife now pays over $7k a year for Part B coverage — IRMAA, Tier 4) and I just want to disenroll in Part D. She says she can’t help me with that and she tells me that only Silver Scripts/GEHA can initiate the process for disenrollment for a EWGP plan that they sponsor!
After getting to the right people in GEHA, I finally got disenrolled. Now we're waiting to see how this screw-up will be affecting my wife's SS retirement payments because SS said we had to pay for Part D, while we were mis-enrolled in Part D; my wife just received a SS payment last week, in advance of her regular SS payment, that seems to cover the mis-enrollment premium charged against her for Part D.
So take what you hear from your initial conversations with Medicare reps, some of whom are getting on-the-job training, with a grain of salt. And Medicare does not really process payments for late enrollment or Medicare premiums.
Statistics: Posted by ChrisC — Sun Feb 02, 2025 10:28 pm — Replies 40 — Views 3567