The death of a spouse is a qualifying LCE for the SSA-44.I know someone widowed in 2023. She had and still has passive income that puts her MAGI a little bit over $200K per year. When she was MFJ, this meant she was in the baseline tier for Medicare premiums. Now that she's filing Single, this same income puts her in Tier 4 for Medicare premiums, more than triple the previous monthly premium at $649 per month. Would someone be so kind as to comment as to the likelihood of success of an SSA-44 appeal based on expenses rising (for a new need for assisted living) despite no change in income?
The SSA-44 form is nothing more than a request for the SSA to use a more recent year for the IRMAA determination than the normal 2-year look back.
If the death of the spouse resulted in a loss of income then a request can be made for the SSA to use a more recent year to determine IRMAA. If the loss of the spouse's SS benefits, or loss of a pension resulted in a reduction in her income, then could estimate her new income and if it was lower than the T4 threshold, then she would only owe the T3 IRMAA.
This would require her to make adjustments in her investments, giving strategies, etc... to get her MAGI down to that T3 threshold.
Statistics: Posted by WeakOldGuy — Wed Nov 26, 2025 12:05 am — Replies 22 — Views 1681