Medicare part B double billing.

[RadioRicky]

My wife and I started Medicare Plan B on January 1, 2024.  we received a bill for four months of premiums, which we paid in full.  My wife decided just after January 1, to start Social Security. We received an autopayment  at the end of January.  Here is the shocker.  Even though we paid for FOUR months of PLAN B, Medicare deducted another payment for Plan B for January.  In my book, that is double billing.  I called the Medicare office and they said we had to wait 6 months before they will pay back the 4 months of potential overbilling.  In private business, this would be unacceptable. We want plan B but we cannot afford to be double billed for it, and we certainly cannot wait 6 months for them to correct a problem that they created.  I put it on a credit card. I am assuming that I could run a chargeback against it. How should I approach this, so I am not overbilled?

[fffred]

@RadioRicky 

I had a double payment for Part B as well, about 2 months worth. I was on Part B before I took my Social Security retirement at 70. 

I got the cash refunded (I don't recall "how" but I was made whole) and it only took maybe 2 months. Not 6. This was about 2 years ago.

[GailL1]

@RadioRicky 

1st of all - it isn't Medicare that handles the billing or collection of Medicare Part B premiums - Medicare & CMS only handles matters of health.  It is the Social Security Administration that handles all matters related to premiums for Medicare - 

Government isn't a business.  They don't have to account for their actions.  Government has their own [inefficient] ways of handling things - if I were in your situation, I would just do it their way so that things don't get screwed up any worse - but that's just me - I don't like to fight with the Government.  I don't like dealing with the massive number of tenacles that they seem to have to go through just to fix a simple matter (IOM) - nothing is ever simple with them and if you throw in something else out of the basic norm or change their procedure - anything goes !!!  The ole MOUNTAIN out of a molehill , so to speak.

Just make sure that they don't end up cancelling your wife's Part B - follow it closely and keep records of how things transpire so that you can recreate it with documents just in case it gets screwed up more.  I guess I just look at how much time and effort I would have to exert if they mess it up more to get it straightened out - They don't just handle things like this over the phone cause the phone rep may not be trained in handling matters such as this.

I doubt whether you could even go to a local Social Security Office to get it straightened out - the Government needs to cut you a check to give your wife back the premium that she overpaid for the month of January 2024 for Part B and only some have that authority.

Here is the Social Security Program Operations Manual System (POMS) on the matter - feel free to follow it along with the embedded links to see how the system is supposed to work in this regard.

SSA.gov POMS - Refund of Part B Premiums

By the circumstances, this was the fault of the beneficiary, not SSA - maybe your wife could have started her SS benefits for the month that the Part B premiums hadn't been paid - 

Sorry to be so blunt - don't want to make you mad - just giving you the realities of the situation.

Good Luck in however you decide to handle the matter.

[RadioRicky]

No, sorry. We did nothing wrong. This autopayment from her social security check should have had the basic capacity to check the balance of what was in the CMS premium pot. There is no acceptable reason that CMS has to wait nine months before they refund this double billing. This is very bad computer accounting software. I have quite a reputation for tracking down and correcting bad behavior.  A major cell phone company overbilled me 14 years ago for $18 for free ringtones. I found one of the best class action attorneys, collected evidence and raised hell. Net result we won the case $27 million.  My cut a little more than $1000. But the problem was resolved.  Medicare is a good program. However, if something is broken, they need to fix it. This overbilling should have never happened, and it has happened according to a supervisor at medicare a lot!

[EricN999655]

I'm not completely sure that SSA handles the billing and collection of premiums. I don't qualify for SS because of a pension. My billings and premium payments are through CMS.

[PatriciaT879467]

I have the same issue. I was billed for 3 months worth of medicare  in May and they also auto-deducted the same from my monthly Social security payments. I was told it would refunded the next billing cycle but wasn’t. Still waiting to get a straight answer from Medicare and Social Security. 

[GailL1]

@PatriciaT879467 

Look at your Medicare Card - what is the date that Part B began?  

Now what date did your begin to get your Social Security ?

Just making sure that the Part B premiums that were deducted from your SS benefit are for the same months as those you paid directly.  

[sktn77a]

May or may not be relevant to the above but remember, Medicare is paid in advance, Social Security is paid in arrears.  So your first Social Security payment may have TWO monthly payments deducted for Medicare.

[PatriciaT879467]

I paid for 3 months of Medicare for June, July, August in advance. I got a bill in May to pay for that which I did. When my Social security payment started in June, they also deducted for the same medicare in June, July and August. So I was billed twice for the same medicare interval (june-aug)

[roachme]

@PatriciaT879467   When I started SS in a past January, I had paid Medicare for the 3 months Jan, Feb, and March in December.  My first SS payment (January) was in late February and it had the February Medicare deducted.  So SS owed me back Medicare payments for February and March that I had paid in December.  The check for 2 months of Medicare arrived about 6 weeks after that first SS payment was made.

SS is paid in arrears and Medicare in advance.  Effectively, it's like SS deposits the previous month benefit to your "payment" account on the 1st and Medicare takes out the Part B payment on the 1st for the current month.  Then later that month, SS sends you the remaining balance from your "payment" account.