Medicare School Daily

2 Ways To GUARANTEE You Will Have Lifetime Medicare Penalties

• Marvin Musick

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Nobody plans on paying Medicare penalties for life.

But two common mistakes can make that happen.

Today on the Medicare Daily Show, we’re talking about the decisions that can trigger lifetime penalties, why they catch so many people off guard, and what to understand before it’s too late.

Bring your questions. We’ll be taking calls live and helping you make sense of your Medicare, Social Security, or retirement situation.

SPEAKER_02

There are two ways in Medicare that you can guarantee you are going to have a lifetime penalty. And obviously, you don't want a lifetime penalty. If you're listening, you may have already made these mistakes, or you may be about to make these mistakes. So the purpose here today is to make sure that you don't make either of these mistakes so you don't have a lifetime penalty. Welcome to Medicare School Daily. My name is Josh Music. I'm here in the studio with Evan Cruz. He's worked here at MedicareSchool.com for a number of years. He's one of our Medicare guides and truly is an expert on all things Medicare. If you have a question about your Medicare situation, your Social Security situation, your retirement, uh, we would love to talk to you. You can get all your questions answered here from 11 a.m. to noon Central Time Monday to Thursday. 11 a.m. to noon Central Time Monday to Thursday. The phone number to call in. Ask your question is 833-824-2004. 833-824-2004. So don't let your questions go unanswered. Don't make a Medicare mistake. Call in and make sure you are clear on what you need to do. Okay, let's talk about the uh the two ways to guarantee you're gonna have lifetime penalties.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Yeah. Penalties. Scary, right? That's the number one thing people are worried about when they call in. They're like, I just don't, I want to make sure I'm not penalized. What do I gotta do? There, I'm getting all these notifications and letters and and and everyone's telling me that if I don't make this decision now, I'm gonna be penalized for the rest of my life. It's a big fear.

SPEAKER_02

And it's a big scare tactic. It is being used by agents and insurance companies to get you to buy their plants.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Well, it's also used by the federal government, too, to say, hey, you know, make sure you don't do this. And and I you get people every once in a great while who said, I uh I was never told. I don't know about this. And I'm like, what rock were you living under? Because that'd be a big rock for you to not know because it's so hounded from every direction, you know, that you have to make these decisions. And personally, I'm more of a um incentivize people to make decisions rather than scare them into making decisions. I think if they if they told people, hey, when you turn 65 into Medicare, we're gonna give you a check for $5,000, everyone would do it. Everyone would be have that on their calendar to make sure they got it done. But they the we tend to go the other direction sometimes and just scare people and just say, you know, we're gonna penalize you instead. And that's just once again, I didn't write the rules of the government, but whatever. That's just how it is. So how do we avoid that? And what are these penalties ultimately? So when you turn 65 in this state in the United States, we have a healthcare system called Medicare, and you have to be on that policy, you have to be on that coverage because that's what it's designed for. We've we've built it for our elderly. Unless you have creditable coverage through an employer with at least 20 employees in the company, you can stay on that as long as you want. They don't get in the way of people choosing to work. You or a spouse are actively working and you're covered under that policy, work until you're 100. If you want to, Medicare is not going to get in the way of people choosing to work. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02

And I think that's maybe before we get into the actual two penalties, I think that's a big myth about penalties, is that if you you know it doesn't matter what your situation is, you have to get on Medicare A and B at 65. That's actually not true.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I have I have so many people I tell them I just I wish I had a time machine. I could go back nine or ten years, and all these Part B premiums you've been paying this whole time that done basically nothing for you other than cost you money. You have a redundancy of coverage, you have a conflict of coordination benefits. Yeah, you've got you've you're you're way overcovered, and the employer coverage, active employer coverage is always first payer. So it's gonna take care of everything, and the the part A and B are gonna cover very little after that. So you're really not only are you wasting that money, but also your opportunities to change to or pick up a supplemental policy can be more difficult if you don't have a brand new Medicare date. That's a that's another penalty that people tend to they use the word penalty on that one when it comes to am I gonna not gonna be able to get into a supplemental plan because of my penalty. And it's like, well it kind of. I mean it just depends on the there's extra hoops exactly, and it can limit sometimes the the one that the one you want to get on. And maybe at a higher it maybe at a different rate, too. There's there's a lot of different factors with that one. But yeah, so definitely I always make sure when people are calling in and they're they're worried and scared. I'm gonna get penalized. Yeah, I'm gonna get penalized. My my brother-in-law, my family told me I gotta do this, and I talked to somebody, I talked to somebody, I talked to there's always somebody, you know, who's an expert, right? Who's not an expert who tries to tell them that they have to do this, and I and I try to calm their fears and smooth their feathers down and listen, you are fine. You don't need to call them and say, hey, I'm not going on Medicare yet. You don't have to tell anybody. They don't want to know. They want to know afterward, and they want to have proof afterward, but they don't need to know ahead of time.

SPEAKER_02

The only reason you get penalized, uh, and which we're gonna talk about, like you don't have to take it 65 if you're actively working or your spouse is actively working. And if you think about it, it makes sense. The government would would prefer you continue to be covered by that employer coverage. They're not gonna penalize you for not being on their payroll, right? They're only gonna penalize you down the road if you go without coverage or we're gonna get an extra.

SPEAKER_00

And it goes both ways too, because the the employers spend a ton of money to cover people over 65, you know, 1800 bucks a month or so at least, just to cover you. And so uh most of the big corporations don't really care, they're tax write-offs or whatever. Small companies though, 50, 100 employees, oh, it's it's a ton of money. And and a lot of times that can be really good uh benefit, a good benefit, mutual benefit for you and your company to say, hey, I'm 65 or coming up on 65 now, and I know it costs you a lot of money to keep me on. Um, and the coverage I've got, you know, a $3,000 deductible and an $8,000 max out of pocket and networks and co-pays and all that stuff. And uh I don't necessarily like the coverage. You don't like me on the coverage. So how about this? What if I were to go on to Medicare and it and it would cost you or cost me $300 a month for complete comprehensive coverage? If I were to do that and drop this employer coverage, would you cover that for me?

SPEAKER_02

Can I get a pay raise?

SPEAKER_00

Or or well, a raise or just a reimbursement. I mean, the company is with saving $1,500 a month to take that deal. And it's it's a great deal for small companies.

SPEAKER_02

They they can't force you to do that because that would be age discrimination, like, hey, you've got to get off and we're gonna do this. But I think it's it's a different situation if you come to them and are like, hey, I can get better coverage on Medicare for cheaper. You know, if you work for an employer that, you know, is not some huge company.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02

A lot of times they want to, they would love to get you off. And even large companies, we've been talking to companies lately about you know, they've got five percent of their population that has uh that is eligible or seven percent that's eligible for Medicare. How do they get them off so that in a legal way, because they can't force you off in a way that makes sense. And generally, it's a better deal for you, right? It's a better deal for the the the actual insured person. So it's a win-win all around.

SPEAKER_00

All the way around. Absolutely. Um dental envision plans, you know, we can pick up separately. I usually recommend people keep those because they're pretty cheap normally to an employer, separate from medical. Yeah, there's no worried about penalties on that stuff or anything like that. Um, but as far as the penalties themselves, like the what why what is the actual penalty? Yeah. Like well, what what if I mess this up?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, the two.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Two ways of guarantee. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. So the what the uh the two penalties that people would get on Medicare would be you don't have that creditable coverage for 12 months at a time from the time you first turned 65. For every 12 months, it's a 10% penalty for life.

SPEAKER_02

So you had a gap. So you were let's say you worked past 60, or maybe you retired early. Yeah. And then at 65, you just didn't take Medicare. So if you go for 12 months, there's gonna be a penalty.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. 10% per life. We'll never go.

SPEAKER_02

20% of what? 10% of the cost of part B. Cost of part B. So part B right now is $202.90, so that's twenty. Twenty dollars, twenty cents. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, exactly. And you pay that every month for life. Every month for life. And you go to two years?

SPEAKER_02

Twenty percent. So now you're at forty dollars. Three years, sixty, okay.

SPEAKER_00

And no, and more, and and and there's no way of getting rid of it. It'll it'll always be there. And that's and the reason they people will ask you, why? Why are they doing this? Why are they penalizing me? Well, because you didn't take. And what well and why didn't you take? Yeah. Because you're human. Because I was healthy. Well, exactly. You're you're a human being, you're a person. And and we we are not the best at planning ahead. Yeah. We're not the best about looking at the bigger picture, the outside of ourselves. And so, I mean, think about it's I always say like think of it like car insurance. Like if you were to get into a car accident and you didn't have insurance, and then you go say, Hey, can I pick up some insurance? Can you guys cover this for me right now? No one's calling it. Car insurance would deny it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Medicare would have to accept you within a certain window.

SPEAKER_00

Within a certain window. What's that? That's uh general enrollment, which would be January January 1st through March 31st, would be your uh open window. If you missed all your other opportunities to get on, you gotta wait till then. So if it's July and you're 68 years old and you never picked up anything, and you're looking at a 20 to 30 percent penalty at that point, but you're like, Oh, I just got a horrible diagnosis and and I don't have any other insurance. I want Medicare. You're out of luck until January. Exactly. And then and then and no previous bills are gonna get covered. There's no backdating on your uh your medical procedures or anything that you need on that one. You're you are out on your own.

SPEAKER_02

So if you're listening to this, you are probably not going to have this penalty, number one, because you're listening to this, but also you have a tendency to want to get educated. I feel like it's the people that I don't know, I didn't do anything. I never heard yeah, whatever. You know, those are the folks that that have this penalty. Um it is for life, it's 10% for every 12 months. Now, the question that we get somewhat frequently uh is if you are working, you don't take at 65 because you've listened to us, you listened to whoever, you know you don't need to take, you're at a large employer, you don't take anything. You're 67, so you're two years in, you get laid off. That's a concern for a lot of people, right? So when that happens, what you know what's what's the enrollment period that they're gonna use and how does that logistically work? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so that's uh what's called your SEP or special enrollment period, which begins the moment your your health coverage comes to an end. Now, normally when you work in a job and you and this is for true for most companies, except for like unions and a few exceptions, but I would say about 90% of jobs, you work a couple days into the month, you have paid premiums on your insurance for that month, it will carry you through the end of that month. So if you get let go sometime in that month, your health coverage generally will carry you through and you got some time to get things set up so you don't have any breaks in coverage. But if you're working for like a union or you have uh, let's say you get let go on the last day of the month, um, you're probably not gonna get coverage in time uh before your the next month starts. And Medicare always starts the first of the month. So you can't backtake.

SPEAKER_02

We we I mean we've helped plenty of people though. If you're on the ball, call us if this happens to you. We can help you apply very much Medicare A and B. You can make application for a supplement plan, all this stuff. You made the drug plan could be dicey. If you don't have a Medicare number, you're probably not going to be able to do that. You'll have to delay that for a month. But we can, you can do it on the last day of the month, and you're not gonna have cards. But eventually everything will process through over the next few weeks. You'll get cards mailed to you, and that coverage will be be back dated so that you will at least have coverage.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you'll have protective filing. As long as you get stuff turned in before midnight of that last day of the month, then yeah, you'll get back. You'll when they finally do process it, they'll move it back to the beginning of the month. Absolutely. It's a little bit of a rush. Obviously, no one wants to kind of go through that. So I usually tell people try to give yourself about 60 days. About two months is a great period of time. If you're gonna retire, if you think it's coming, you're like, I think I'm I'm uh gonna uh leave my job, or I think maybe um they they're gonna be letting me go. Um we need to start having that conversation about 60 days. There's plenty of time to get cards in hand to be done by then.

SPEAKER_02

And I think that underscores, you know, we'll we'll get to penalty number two in a second, but I think that underscores why when you turn 65, you don't have to take part A. Right. But most people we suggest you go ahead and enroll in part A. Number one, it's not gonna cost you anything. 99.9% of people, it doesn't cost anything. The second reason is you'll now be in the Medicare system, you will have a Medicare card and a Medicare number, which just makes everything go a lot easier if you find yourself in one of these situations where you get laid off or something unexpected happens, a health thing, you gotta be done. At least you're in the system, you got an A, you can kind of get your stuff rolling and it's a little bit smoother. Right. The only caveat to that, of course, is if you are contributing to an HSA, then you're not gonna want to take part A because if you do that, um you're gonna get penalized, you know, for that money and you're not gonna be able to do that any longer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So no more contributions.

SPEAKER_02

That would be that would be the uh the one caveat. Okay. Penalty number one is B, which if I can recap, it's 10% for every 12 months that you go without coverage and you're not actively working. Right. Right, or your spouse isn't actively working. Right. The time to enroll in two part B, if you've find yourself in this situation where you've been without coverage, is during the first quarter of the year, January 1st to March 31st, the coverage will always begin the following month. However, if you're in April 2nd, March or May, June, July, August, September, you have something come up, you don't have A and B, you are out of luck until the following January 1st. And you're gonna be penalized.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Okay. Yeah, dangerous road to be on. To not watch those dates and make sure you are covered. But but from the time, some we didn't mention, the time that employer coverage does come to an end, let's say they let you go, people are going, oh no, I'm not gonna get this paperwork turned back in on time. I'm gonna miss the first of the month, they're gonna penalize me. You had eight months to get that term to get started. So you have you have a big wide window of time from the time it ends. Obviously, get it started at ASAP because you don't want to go to the hospital without insurance, obviously, but nonetheless, you do have a big window of time to avoid those penalties. That eight-month special enrollment is pretty good.

SPEAKER_02

I think there's one other thing worth noticing as you're bringing up this eight months. You find yourself in a layoff scenario. Yes, you do have eight months to not, you know, get in everything without penalties, all that sort of stuff. However, sometimes with a layoff comes this a package of, hey, we'll give you 12 months or 18 months of cobra. And so people will talk to people all the time. Hey, my employee's been paying for it, I'm 69 years old, laid me off a year ago, but I've had cobra, everything's good, haven't had any issues. My dad frequently tells a story about a couple who was in this exact situation. They had um, I think it was $100,000 worth of bills, and they ended up being on the hook for $80,000 of those bills. Why? Because when you are eligible for Medicare and there's Cobra that's covering you, Cobra is going to pay second after Medicare. And if you don't have Medicare, guess who pays first? You. Right. And so it's very important to not get caught up in this, oh, Cobra's creditable or Cobra counts, or my employer's paying for Cobra, even though I'm eligible for Medicare, I'll just wait till Cobra's over, till I go on Medicare. No. Right. Get on A and B. If not, Cobra will say we're only going to pay second. So, Mr. Johnson, you're going to pay first. And you're going to be responsible for 80% of the bills.

SPEAKER_00

And a big thing I get on that too is a lot of people say, Well, my employer told me. Yeah. My employer told me of course. Listen, listen, listen. They're good people, but and they may know a lot about what they're doing pre-65. They are not Medicare experts. And you will run into a lot of situations where I I was not told the truth by my employer or I was promised something. And it's like, I you they they they never should be able to do that. Oh, yeah, they think they're doing you a favor. A lot of that's a lot of the biggest problems I have are when Social Security or Medicare or or whoever think they're doing you a favor and moving dates that you didn't ask for, or or it's it it's all too common in employers by them. Like you said, the stuff they give you afterward or the um and this and this is a a bit of a tangent to go to this part, but when you talk about federal employee health or even a lot of companies who do offer you a specific retirement plan that they want to put you on, uh they make it seem like this is our gift to you for working this long and all that.

SPEAKER_02

And it's like no, a lot of times those plans that are gifts or this is a benefit, they're worse than what the average person can get. Yeah, but it's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00

It's a benefit to the company or leave. Yeah. They're not giving away money to put you on these plans. They're getting paid and subsidized to put you on these plans.

SPEAKER_02

We looked, yeah, we were looking at uh somebody on a call yesterday, and you know, $120 premium for some advantage plan where they could go get a plan in for $115. And it's like, why would I have an advantage plan just because it's sponsored by your old employer or your old you know, teacher fund or whatever it is to get subpar coverage when I can go and look at what's available on the open market.

SPEAKER_00

And that's and that's back to the scare taxes. So they tell you once you leave, you're never you can't come back. Yeah. Once you let go of this plan, you're never gonna get it again. You go, oh, well, ooh, I don't want to lose that. I can't risk it.

SPEAKER_02

You know, the truth of the matter is that plan is going to change every year. Absolutely it will. As opposed to getting on a supplement plan where it's yours for life.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, penalty number one talks about it. What's penalty number two?

SPEAKER_00

Penalty number two is part D. That's your prescription drug medications. So the uh what's a smaller percentage of that, it's one percent for every month you go without drug coverage. And that starts from 63 days after you start Medicare Part B. Let's say after uh, well, technically a little bit longer in your IEP, you got your first three months there, but then after the year when you first start turn 65. But when you start your uh your employer coverage, you leave that in your special enrollment period to go on 63 days. If you don't enroll in 63 days, you start to incrue lifetime penalties. These are about 1% per month, which is roughly about 36, 38 cents, something like that on average.

SPEAKER_02

$4, $80, $5 a year, let's call it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, something like that. Um, which, you know, you miss a year. It's not the end of the world. But you are paying that every month, so it's $60 a year for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00

So, and you know, I mean, I'm gonna do the math on how much time people have left, generally speaking, but it's it's not like I said, it's not the end of the world. Some people panic over that, and I'm like, listen, it's not that bad. Let's stop the bleeding now, let's get a plan and stop the continued uh accrual accrual. But you can start getting five, six, eight, ten years of not having it now, because I'm not taking any meds, I don't need anything. And now you get one. Now it's eighty dollars a month, and you go, okay, every month, forever. And the drug plan itself is zero. It doesn't cost anything in most states for the basic stuff you need, but you still got to pay the eighty dollar penalty, and it just never goes away. And you're like, why did I?

SPEAKER_02

It's almost a deterrent to continuing even while you're healthy together.

SPEAKER_00

There is a tip for sell people, there's a tipping point sometimes. You can when your penalties get so high, if you made that mistake, sometimes it would almost make sense to just get it when you need it later on down the road. I'm not it's just a matter of financial.

SPEAKER_02

The problem is let's I think that's a perfect like opening to get it when you need it, but you have a very you have a seven-week window when you can get it. So if you don't know, you could be out a lot. So let's talk through like when you can actually get a drug plan if you don't get it at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So drug plans, just like Medicare Advantage plans, have election codes. You have to have an election to get in, not just uh in any time of the year you want. There's a limited number of you can do you can't just change them all the time. Um there are more elections than uh you might be told by Medicare, depending on your situation. They might tell you um, because they're when you call Medicare or call Social Security, typically you talk to people who have not done this for either a long period of time or they are um somewhat I'm gonna say balkanized in their education. They they're not they're surrounded by people who only know as much as they know. Sure. And and you're not gonna get all the the whole pic the whole picture.

SPEAKER_02

Did you use the word balkanized? Yeah. What does that mean? Like the like uh uh like the Balkans, you know, like the Trevor Burrus, Just you're like in a in a valley of uh everyone's the same. Yeah, yeah. Protected.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the expression you know that means you you're you're surrounded by people who only do what you do and you don't believe what you believe. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh but yeah, so you're you're basically you're you're in a um an echo chamber.

SPEAKER_02

That's probably an easier way easier way to put it there. For the for us dumb folks.

SPEAKER_00

So uh so yeah, so you'll say, well, well, I called I called Medicare and they they didn't tell me anything about this. This is this is why I I love doing what we do here. I love working in this office, I love being able to be here every day, and every time I talk to my coworkers, I learn something new. And they learn something.

SPEAKER_02

Trevor Burrus, Jr. There's 70 million people on Medicare.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. Like it's huge. Yeah, and it's constantly moving. Fifty states, creature, 100 insurance kind of learning that. Yeah, it's changing all the time. And unless you if you keep in that tiny little bubble, you will quickly be left behind on what the options people have. So going back to what the election code, so when it comes to getting onto these plans, there's times to do it at the beginning. There's times to do it during the annual enrollment period, October 15 through December 7. There are opportunities. I'm not gonna go through all the elections, obviously, but if you move or situations change and life life life-altering um circumstances happen to you, there are chances to get onto drug plans. But once again, that's not gonna come without penalties if you miss your windows at the right time. And there are certain ways to try to getting out of penalties in certain situations, but talk to your your guide, talk to your Medicare expert, and they'll do what they can to try to help you. But you gotta make the right decisions at the right time on these things.

SPEAKER_02

Yesterday, my dad went through some of the just the most expensive medications. I mean, it's like hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. And when you don't have a drug plan, you're responsible to pay for that. When you do have a drug plan, it caps out at $2,100. So not only will you be penalized, but you could be stuck in a situation where you're out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars getting coverage for something because you don't have a window to enroll in a drug plan. Okay, let's talk to Joel in Indiana. Joel, welcome to Medicare School Daily. What questions do you have for us?

SPEAKER_01

Okay, well, this is concerning my 84-year-old mother. All right. Uh both my mother and my father had worked. Well, worked. And uh uh my father passed away about 20 years ago. They were been married for like 40 some years, and both of them qualified for Social Security on their own uh work numbers. But the question basically is when she went on social. Security, my mother, uh, I think she went off for her numbers. How was how do you go checking to see if she could get more money on my father's numbers? I don't because that when dad passed away right after he had retired, it like six months after he retired, he passed away. I don't think he ever got a security check or anything.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

But I he had worked all of his life. So well, what's the process about checking on that?

SPEAKER_00

For sure. Absolutely. So I would I would always recommend you go talk to your local social security office. They're gonna have all the answers when it comes to what to do with that. However, uh, I can kind of give you an idea of what you could expect anyway. So the appreciated they were married for at least 10 years, right? Yeah, about 40. About 40 years, there you go. Long time. And so um as a survivor of the of the marriage, she's the last one alive there, she should be entitled to his full benefit of whatever it was that he would have gotten at the time that he would have been able to get it. Uh usually it's higher for the one who was working a lot more, whichever you know, spouse that may be, obviously.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And so and it would replace the one that she has. So if she's making, let's say, uh $500 and $1,000 a month. Yeah, about a thousand. He would, and let's say he would have made you know $2,500, then as a survivor, she should get the full $2,500. Basically, is what she would get out of that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um what you know what?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. Now it's uh what do you know when she started collecting? About 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01

She's 84 now. So I assume she I assume she's started at 65.

SPEAKER_02

Is she is she taking her own benefit, do you know?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I you know, I'm I'm thinking she is, because she's only getting like a thousand dollars a month around that number. So I assume it's on her record.

SPEAKER_02

Did either of them have like a government pension or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01

No, he has a private pension through uh Arban Industries. Okay, but that's private pension. Which she gets 75% of, which is thank goodness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and I mean, double check with it. There's a chance sometimes this stuff doesn't really go unnoticed. There's a chance she may already be getting it, if you're not quite sure, um, as far as the survivor benefit portion of it. Because do you know how much she worked over the course of her life? Like, do you know how much how much she put in?

SPEAKER_01

Uh she worked many different jobs, uh, but I know she did qualify for her her uh you know Medicare insurance.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Many different jobs. So yeah, I mean that sounds like about a thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, you know, as us kids were growing up.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So let me just I've just been kind of researching this question as you've been you guys have been talking. So says if you were already receiving spousal benefits based on your spouse's record, Social Security will generally switch you automatically to survivor benefits. So if she would have been receiving a spousal benefit, bas so like whenever they apply, they're like, oh, well, half of his is greater than 100% of yours. Let's go ahead and put you on the spousal benefit. Then once he passed away, then she automatically would have been, you know, upped to the survivor benefit. However, if you were collecting on her own, if she was collecting on her own work record, the transfer is not automatic and she must apply for for survivor benefits.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know if there's anything in there about uh payment and arrears?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I that's what I was curious about. Um if sometimes, I mean, we've heard of people getting checks. I'm not sure if it would, you know, like large checks.

SPEAKER_00

Doesn't hurt to ask. I mean, worst thing to say is no, but like can they backpay or something? She could get significant back pay if that's the case, if it's possible to do that. So Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I'll I'll ask them when we go to the Social Security Office and Yeah, it looks like they they may pay, they may pay in arrears, but only up to six months. Okay. Yeah. It's interesting. Okay, yeah. Go to the Social Security office and if you want, let us know what you find out. Yeah, absolutely. Uh all right. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you very much. Thanks, Joel. Bye-bye. I didn't know that. If you were already, if you were only on if you're already on spousal, it'll automatically, you gotta manually.

SPEAKER_00

I had that feeling that some of those some situations were automatic. Like they don't let that stuff just kind of go. Um but yeah, on your own, I wouldn't imagine that would have been automatic exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Boy, that could have been a lot of money she missed out on. Think about that. Potentially.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because she should have gotten his. He said, he said Costco, he said she did some waitressing work, and then now I'm like, ugh. A lot of times you don't claim a lot of taxes. She might already be on it. Potentially.

SPEAKER_02

She's only getting a thousand a month. That's pretty low. But he said he died twenty years ago. I know, but twenty years of cost of living increases on Social Security and you're still only at a thousand? That's true. It's pretty low. Yeah. That's kind of interesting. If you have questions about Medicare and you feel like you're just constantly getting harassed by people who want to sell you something, that's probably because that's true. Most people who purport themselves as industry experts or Medicare experts are really just salespeople dressed up in disguise. Now, I don't ever want to discount people who are selling things. We here at MedicareSchool.com are insurance brokers. And if you call us, you're going to talk to someone who's been trained by my dad Marvin, who has years and years of experience, has helped thousands and thousands of people. So there is a chance you may end up enrolling in coverage. However, if you want to talk to some folks who aren't trying to sell you something, I want to invite you to join the MedicareSchool.com Facebook group on uh Facebook. It's called just open up your Facebook app, type in Medicare School community, and there's 50,000 people that are on Medicare that you can ask your questions to. And so uh my dad Marvin goes live in there once or twice a week answering questions, teaching on some component of Medicare, but there's a lot of people, and they're just asking questions, talking back and forth about their particular and their personal situations as it relates to their experience with Medicare insurance carriers, with coverage, all of these sorts of things. So got a question here yesterday. We're gonna answer. Uh Emily says, I will start traditional Medicare with my secondary insurance on August 1st. I have my first doctor's appointment for August 3rd for a one-year follow-up. They also run echocardiogram at this visit to monitor my heart problems. Does Medicare cover visits and tests that are both on the same day? I was thinking I have read somewhere that that test wouldn't be covered if it's the same day as the visit. You know the answer to this?

SPEAKER_00

When it comes to most everything in Medicare, and this is a general rule across the board, and and obviously check with your doctors because they should know this stuff too. Because a lot of this is going to fall back on the provider. The provider has to bill properly, code it correctly. Code it correctly at the right time if they want to get paid, if they want Medicare to pay, and if they want to get paid. So generally doctors and hospitals do like to get paid. And if they want to, they're going to do it right. And so any as with anything in Medicare, as long as what you are doing is medically necessary. You're not going in saying, I want an echocardiogram, I'll sit here and wait until it's done. You're electing to do things. Medicare ain't gonna it's not gonna cover what you're electing to do. But if it's if the doctors are ordering these tests and they they deem them as medically necessary, it shouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't see uh uh even being on the same day. But once again, confirm that with your doctor to make sure that, hey, you guys are building this to Medicare, you're coding this correctly, you don't need me to do this another day, right? Yep. They should know that and be able to tell you that properly.

SPEAKER_02

100%. Yeah. Start with them. Make sure you hold their feet to the fire. And the other thing I would mention here, whenever you're first starting Medicare, let's say you have a Medicare supplement, I'm assuming you do, make sure that first time that you go to the doctor, you insist, insist, insist, triple check that they are going to run your Medicare and your new Medicare supplemental plan. A lot of billing off, billing people, clerks in the back, just run your old insurance. And then it creates this issue that you have to get on the phone for 15 or 20 minutes with Medicare and unwind this thing that they call crossover. And so uh just make sure you are very, Emily, when you go for your first appointment, since it's two days after you start Medicare, that you uh number one, make sure the echocardiogram is medically necessary and going to be coded that way. And number two, make sure they bill and send everything to Medicare, not your old insurance. Otherwise, it will create an issue for you. Tim says, I have a question. Does Medicare cover physical therapy if recommended by a doctor? And I have a doctor's order for it. Absolutely. 100%.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Yep, that's uh medically necessary. It's uh part of your health and to keep keep you functioning like you should. So, yep, Medicare is gonna cover that. Absolutely. But once again, make sure your physical therapist office isn't a cash-only establishment.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, sometimes PTs, chiropractors, these sorts of people can be make sure they bill Medicare.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Which 98% of doctors and hospitals nationwide do, so it's not hard to find, but definitely confirm because you run into some situations where, oh yeah, we don't take Medicare, but here's your bill. Yeah. Make sure you're covering yourself there. And it's it's a little bit extra due diligence whenever you turn 65 just to make sure that things are going like they should, like going to the places they should. But once you do, you're in the clear. Yeah, absolutely. All good.

SPEAKER_02

If you need help with your Medicare plans, whether that's comparing advantage plans to supplement plans, comparing uh the cost of Medicare supplement plan in versus G or maybe amongst carriers, getting set up for drug coverage, dental coverage, vision, hearing, whatever it is, you can call our office at 800-782-667-6800-782-6676. Tell them that you watch the Medicare Daily Show and you would like to get some help. Uh, the service is free, you're not gonna have to pay anything, and you're gonna get unbiased advice uh on what is going to be correct for your situation. So I encourage you to call. You can talk to gentlemen just like Evan, gentlemen and ladies, we've got a lot of people here that are passionate, come to work every day, wanting to help people learn about Medicare, understand their options, and then help them enroll. It's truly like having a guide, somebody who can just hold your hand through this process, uh, make you feel empowered that you're making the correct decisions. You may be sitting around talking to your neighbors or your family members, somebody who just lives nearby, whatever it is, and you find out they have the same plan as you. Conversation continues, and you find out they're paying $75.80, $100 less for that coverage. That happens and it happens somewhat frequently. Tomorrow you're gonna learn why that happens and what you can do about it. Some of you can do something about it, and some of you can't. So join us, learn how your neighbor may be getting the same identical coverage for much, much less.