Medicare Billing 5 months of Part B at once

[russelltw]

Have t65 client who is working and not taking ss benefits. She received a bill from Medicare for Part B premiums for 5 months ($673). Due in two weeks. Client is not prepared to pay it.

I vaguely remember another client saying he had it set up on monthly bank draft. Another I think said Medicare told him to just mail in the monthly Part B amount.

Curious if any others here can confirm this?

 

[DS4]

Curious if any others here can confirm this?

Yes. You can either write a check, use a credit card, or, set up monthly bank debit.
You say your client is still working? Does he have employer group health coverage??

 

[russelltw]

No, self employed. Had no coverage before she was referred to me by one of my clients.

Was wondering if she can send in a check for $134 for Oct and $134 for Nov and wait for the next bill for Dec.

 

[Devin01]

Google Medicare ezpay u can get a form to set up ndurect payment

 

[WCMason]

Have t65 client who is working and not taking ss benefits. She received a bill from Medicare for Part B premiums for 5 months ($673). Due in two weeks. Client is not prepared to pay it.

I vaguely remember another client saying he had it set up on monthly bank draft. Another I think said Medicare told him to just mail in the monthly Part B amount.

Curious if any others here can confirm this?

Only the first invoice should be for five months. They sometimes do that to get the beneficiary on a calendar year quarterly cycle. So for someone starting Medicare in the second or third month of a quarter they may get invoice for that partial quarter and all of the next. Once they get that first payment then they will be on a calendar year quarterly cycle.

Until they start receiving Social Security benefits they have the option of continuing to be invoiced quarterly and given the option to pay by check or credit card or they can sign up for Medicare EZ Pay which will draft their checking account monthly.

I’ve had a few clients who did not want to make three month’s payment at a time but also did not want their checking account drafted monthly. I advised them to make two copies of the quarterly invoice and make one third of the quarterly amount each month. This appears to be allowed because no one‘s reported back to me that they ran into a problem doing that.

Just last week I spoke to a client who got that first Medicare Part B invoice for $536 for four months. He did not pay attention to the dates of service on the invoice and did not remember what we had talked about regarding the cost of Medicare. Mistakenly thinking it was a monthly invoice he set it up on his online bill pay and has been paying four months in premiums every month for a year.

 

[russelltw]

Thanks WCMason. I wanted to know if someone was paying that initial lump sum by sending in a partial payment (monthly payment) instead of sending in the entire amount.

I understand the gov't wanting to get them on a quarterly amount, but Oct-Feb stops one month short of quarterly. You expect them to bill her Oct-Dec to get on a quarterly amount.

 

[somarco]

Medicare did the same to me. Billed for 4 or 5 months. The follow up bill had a one month overlap with the prior bill. I asked for a refund. That was 3 years ago.

Still waiting on my refund . . .