Signing up for Medicare depends on whether you want to use your Initial Election Period (IEP) option and join Medicare on your age 65 birth month or delay entry until a later time because you want to remain on a group health insurance plan at work.
If you are drawing Social Security benefits prior to age 65, or qualify under the 25 month disability rules you are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A and B and your red, white and blue card will arrive in the mail about three months prior to your effective date to start receiving Medicare benefits.
If you choose to keep working and remain on your employer group plan, you may need to dis-enroll from Part B coverage to avoid paying the premium if the employer plan meets Medicare’s number of employee rules in the plan
Not knowing this rule can be costly if you can remain in your group plan. Some of our clients kept paying their Part B premium while still working and covered under a group plan and left thousands of unnecessary premium dollars on the table, by not knowing they could dis-enroll from Part B under this situation.
If you are not drawing Social Security benefits prior to age 65 or not disabled, and want to enter Medicare at age 65, you can first sign up for Part A and /or B during the 7-month period that begins 3 months before the month you turn 65, includes the month you turn 65, and ends 3 months after the month you turn 65.
This is called your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP). It’s important to enroll prior to the month you turn 65 because if you enroll the month you turn 65 or the last 3 months of your IEP, the start date for your Medicare coverage will be delayed.
If you (or your spouse) are 65 and still working, and are eligible to delay your entry into Medicare under Medicare’s number of employee rules, and you are covered under a group plan that meets the criteria, then you can wait to sign up for Medicare anytime you are still covered by the group health plan during the 8 month period that begins the month after the employment ends or the coverage ends, whichever happens first.
Under these circumstances you would enter Medicare under the Special Enrollment Period (SEP) rules.
To delay your entry into Medicare when first eligible under the IEP rules, the employer offering the group health plan must have 20 or more employees or 100 or more if you are disabled.
To avoid any confusion, you should know when your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP) begins and ends, and the Special Enrollment Period (SEP) option rules if you keep working and want to remain on a group health plan.
Remember, the key is knowing if your situation meets Medicare’s required number of employees in the group plan if you continue working beyond age 65 and want to exercise the SEP option down the road at a later time.
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