If you miss your opportunity to enroll in Medicare, you may be eligible to enroll with a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) and avoid late enrollment penalties.
Medicare Enrollment
You become eligible for Medicare three months before your 65th birthday. The best time to enroll in Medicare, the Initial Enrollment Period (IEP), starts at this time, then ends three months after your 65th.
During your IEP, you can enroll in Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and/or Medicare Part D. And it’s the best time to do so because if you’re not covered by employer health insurance and you miss the IEP, you will face late penalties for Original Medicare.
What Are the Late Enrollment Penalties?
Late enrollment penalties are calculated based on how long you delayed enrollment. The longer you wait after missing your IEP, the more you will end up paying. So, here’s one important thing to know about late enrollment penalties—even if you are enrolling late, don’t let that stop you from enrolling. The sooner, the better.
You can receive late enrollment penalties for Part A, Part B, and Part D. For Part A, a majority of people will not have to pay a premium at all, and therefore not pay a late penalty. If you do have to pay a premium, your premium may increase up to 10%.
Your Part B premium will also increase by 10% for each year you don’t enroll. Part D late enrollment penalties are different since Medicare calculates the penalty by multiplying 1% of the “national base beneficiary premium” ($33.37 in 2022).
How Special Enrollment Periods Work
Now comes the big question—how do you get a Special Enrollment Period (SEP) to avoid these late fees? The most important thing to know is that if you don’t have employer insurance when your IEP happens and you don’t enroll in Medicare, you’ll get the penalty.
Avoiding the late penalty, then, is to have employer insurance. If you are working at the time your IEP ends, you will not have penalties. As soon as your employer coverage ends, your SEP begins. This is your opportunity to enroll in Medicare and if you don’t during this time, you will receive late penalties based on when your employer coverage ended, not from when you were first eligible.
But, you can have both employer and Medicare together, which is often a great option for all-around full health insurance coverage.
We Make Medicare Easy—Call Midwest Medigap
Work with Midwest Medigap and make your Medicare enrollment easy. To get started, call 800-805-6834 today.
