Medicare Part B Late Enrollment

somarco

GA Medicare Expert
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Atlanta
Maybe I have a mental block, but I am under the impression you can enroll in Part B after turning 65 without penalty if you are covered under an employer group health plan.

Female, turns 65 in November, 2011. Currently covered under spouse employer plan (20+ employees). Spouse will continue working another 1 - 2 years.

As I understand -

Group plan is primary. When group coverage terminates this triggers an SEP (special enrollment period) giving her up to 8 months to enroll in Part B without penalty. When she enrolls in B, she has 6 months to enroll in a gap plan on a guaranteed issue basis, just as if she had turned 65.

What did I miss?

Part of my confusion comes from the Medicare website.

In particular, this last line.

You didn’t take Medicare Part B when you were first eligible because you or your spouse were working and had group health plan coverage through your or your spouse’s employer or union.


This seems to indicate you are subject to an LEP even if you were covered under a group plan.
 
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Maybe I have a mental block, but I am under the impression you can enroll in Part B after turning 65 without penalty if you are covered under an employer group health plan.

Female, turns 65 in November, 2011. Currently covered under spouse employer plan (20+ employees). Spouse will continue working another 1 - 2 years.

As I understand -

Group plan is primary. When group coverage terminates this triggers an SEP (special enrollment period) giving her up to 8 months to enroll in Part B without penalty. When she enrolls in B, she has 6 months to enroll in a gap plan on a guaranteed issue basis, just as if she had turned 65.

What did I miss?

Part of my confusion comes from the Medicare website.

In particular, this last line.




This seems to indicate you are subject to an LEP even if you were covered under a group plan.


it's been a while since I did one of these and I may have had a misunderstanding when I did it, but, the rules as explained to me then was that they did not have a 6 month open enrollment when they did not elect B at T65.

You are correct that they can delay taking B and then pick it up without penalty when the group coverage ends, but they would only have a 63 day window to buy a med sup or an MA. Not 6 months for the med sup. When I did it last it wasn't an issue on 63 days or 6 months because the people wanted a med sup ASAP.

I don't know if they waited more than 63 day if they could have still gotten a med sup on a GI basis or not. If they could have I was misinformed.

At any rate they have 63 days as a worst case scenario from the time they first get part B.
 
You are correct that they can delay taking B and then pick it up without penalty when the group coverage ends, but they would only have a 63 day window to buy a med sup or an MA.

Ahh . . . that sounds familiar. Somehow the 6 month window didn't feel right.

thx!
 
"Open Enrollment" is a six month window beginning with the effective date of Medicare Part B. It does not matter when the effective date is it is a six month window.
 
I was responding to jdeasy's post about the 63 day window to purchase a GI med supp. I should have quoted jdeasy so that you wouldn't have had to post a frivolous post just to increase your post count.
 
Frank is correct.

Also, I think the 63 day window you are referring to is if the client had kept part B and her employer plan and then dropped her employer plan. I think she would have 63 days for a GI plan.

Not 100% on that though. I just ran across this last week. A lady was dis-enrolling from her group plan but has been on Part B for 3 years. She gets a guaranteed issued med supp. I signed her up with MoO and attached the termination sheet
 
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