When a person reaches the age to be eligible for Medicare, they may be concerned about avoiding any penalty if they delay enrolling in this program. They may also want to know when and how they should sign up. We help clients answer these questions every day and I want to help you understand these topics, too.
Avoiding a Penalty for Late Enrollment in Medicare
For a person to be penalized for a delay in signing up for Medicare, in my opinion, they’ve got to work pretty hard at it. In other words, it’s not difficult to avoid the penalties.
First of all, when you first become eligible for Medicare at 65, the government gives you seven months to sign up with no penalty. That is three months before your birth month, the month of your birth, and then the three months following. So you’ve got a seven-month period in which you can sign up for Medicare.
Should You Sign Up for Medicare if You Still Have Group Insurance?
If you are still working and you still have your group plan through your employer, you may not want to sign up for Medicare yet. In that situation, you’ve got only about 60 days following the end of your group coverage to sign up for Medicare and avoid any penalty. So you need to pay more attention to this matter if you retire after the age of 65.
You’d want to start planning your enrollment in Medicare 60 days to 90 days before your retirement date. That would easily be enough time to avoid any penalties that might be incurred by people who defer enrolling in Medicare until after the age of 65.
Making Your Best Transition to Medicare at 65 or After
If you’re fully and gainfully employed by a large employer and you’ve got group health insurance coverage, there are zero concerns about a penalty, enrollments or anything related to Medicare. About 90 days before your retirement date or when your coverage is going to end, call our agency and we’ll talk you through the decisions you need to make. There’s a supplemental form that we send to the government on your behalf to verify you’ve had health insurance coverage that qualified you to defer enrollment in Medicare.
If you’re over the age of 65 and you did nothing about your Medicare enrollment, then you could incur a penalty. In this case, you need to pay attention to the deadlines involved in your enrollment. That’s a little more complicated but we can help you here too. If any of these situations apply to you, give us a call at MBhealth at (314) 544-5400.
