Medicare Part B late enrollment questions & more

LazarusW679735 · ‎10-11-2023

Hello Folks,

I have an unusual type of situation, or maybe not so much. My mother is not a US citizen, and my father is a US citizen (originally from the US), but both lived overseas for most of their lives. And my mother inherited social security and medicare benefits through my father. Currently, my mother is with me in the US where I live. Also, at beginning of the 2023 my mother received a green card (she used to come over often to visit, and simply had a visa back then)

There has been some issue with her medicare benefits due to social security error, but that issue has been resolved. During the intervening time my mother was having medical appointments, etc, and her claims were all denied due to that error. Therefore, she has accumulated claims that needs to be paid by medicare (due to been previously denied). She also has Part F, which should cover deductables and co-pays.

On top of all that, there is another issue I was concerned about. My parents also devorced may years ago and for some reason my mother only qualified for social sec. and medicare benefits in 2018 (maybe a new law?) when was already in her seventies. So, basically she did not qualify for social security and medicare benefits when she was 65. And since she was living overseas and had medical insurance there, in 2018 she did no apply for Part B. My question, then, is twofold: 1) Does she have to pay penalties for having enrolled late in Part B counting from when she was 65 (when she simply did not qualify to begin with)? 2) Does she have to pay penalties at all, considering that she was living overseas and had medical insurance there?

Currently, not only is all her social sec. payment halted (paying for medicare penalties) but she also had a large debt with medicare in function of the accumulated penalties. Last question is: considering that debt, can she use medicare part B normally?

Thanks a lot for any input!