Special enrollment period for employer group health plans

Special enrollment period for employer group health plan

If you are 65 or older and are covered under a group health plan, either from your own or your
spouse’s current employment, you will have a “special enrollment period” in which to sign up for
Medicare Part B. What that means is that you have the option of delaying enrollment in Medicare
Part B without having to wait for a general enrollment period and paying the 10 percent premium
surcharge for late enrollment. The rules will allow you to:

Enroll in Medicare Part B any time while you are covered under the group health plan based on
current employment; or

Enroll in Medicare Part B during the eight-month period that begins following the last month your
group health coverage ends, or following the month employment ends—whichever comes first.

Now the Special enrollment period rules do not apply if employment or employer-provided group
health plan coverage ends during your initial enrollment period. Lets say you decide to enroll in
Medicare Part B while you are still in the group health plan or during the first full month when you
are no longer in the plan, your coverage will begin either:

On the first day of the month you enroll; or at your option, on the first day of any of the following
three months.

Now if you enroll during any of the remaining seven months of the “special enrollment period,” your
Medicare Part B coverage begins on the first day of the following month. If you do not enroll by the
end of the eight-month period, you then will have to wait until the next general enrollment period,
which begins January 1 of the next year. You also may have to pay a higher premium.

Sincerely,
Tom Caress
760-413-9749
medicareplansdirect.net