Medicare premium confusion with new Social Security benefits - pay full bill or just February?

Just pay for February. Social Security will automatically start deducting your Medicare premiums from your benefits starting with your March payment. If you pay the full three months, you'll end up with a mess trying to get that money back. It's a common transition issue that happens with the timing between Medicare and Social Security benefit starts.

I actually did the opposite and paid for all three months when this happened to me. BIG MISTAKE!!! Took me 6 months and multiple calls to get my money back. Still not sure if they gave me everything I was owed.

I wish someone had warned me about this when I started collecting! The Medicare-Social Security transition timing is really confusing. Definitely only pay for February. Your March SS payment will have your Medicare premium deducted automatically. Make sure to keep documentation of everything. The Medicare billing system doesn't always communicate perfectly with SSA right away, so having proof of payment is important.

When I tried sorting this out with SS last year, I couldn't get through on the phone for days. I finally found this service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual SSA agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. Saved me so much frustration! Their site is claimyr.com and they have a demo video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. Definitely worth it for complicated issues like this Medicare-SS transition stuff.

pay febuary only!!! i paid all three months and SS took it out again anyway. took forever to fix!!

I work with seniors on Medicare transitions, and this is a very common issue. Here's exactly what you should do: 1. Only pay the February premium directly 2. Keep your receipt/proof of payment 3. Your March SS payment will have the Medicare Part B premium automatically deducted 4. Check your Medicare online account after your March payment to confirm everything transitioned correctly If you pay for March and April directly, Medicare won't know that SSA is also deducting those premiums, and getting a refund is unnecessarily complicated. This happens because Medicare and SSA are technically separate systems that don't sync in real-time.

My sister had this exact situation except her first SS check was delayed by almost two months after they said it would start! So her Medicare payments got all messed up. Just something to watch out for - sometimes that first payment doesn't come exactly when they say it will.

When I started SS last year I had a similar issue but with different months. My cousin told me to just pay the one month but then I got a warning letter about overdue payments! Turns out my SS benefit processing was delayed (they didn't tell me) so the auto-deductions didn't start when expected. Just keep an eye on your myMedicare account to make sure everything transitions properly.

One more thing to be aware of - once SSA starts deducting your Medicare premiums, they're actually paying for the current month, not in advance. So your March SS payment will have the March premium deducted. This is different from when you pay directly, which is why the transition month (February in your case) is so important to handle correctly.

I went through this exact same transition last year and it was so confusing! Everyone here is giving you the right advice - definitely just pay February and let SS handle the rest starting in March. One thing I'd add is to screenshot or print your Medicare account showing you paid February, because sometimes their system shows late payment warnings for a few weeks while everything syncs up between Medicare and SSA. Having that proof saved me from panicking when I got a notice that looked like I was behind on payments. The transition does work, it just takes the systems a little time to catch up with each other.

This thread has been so helpful! I'm actually going through a similar transition right now - my SS benefits start next month but I'm still getting those confusing Medicare bills. Reading everyone's experiences here has saved me from making the mistake of paying multiple months ahead. It's frustrating how poorly these systems communicate with each other, but at least now I know what to expect. The advice about keeping documentation and screenshots is especially valuable - I'll definitely be doing that to avoid any headaches during the transition period. Thanks to everyone for sharing their real-world experiences!

I just went through this same transition a few months ago and it was definitely confusing at first! Everyone here is absolutely right - only pay the February premium directly. I made the mistake of calling Medicare first instead of reading forums like this, and they basically told me to "figure it out with Social Security" which wasn't helpful at all. What worked for me was paying just that one transition month, then checking my SSA account online after my first benefit payment to confirm the Medicare deduction showed up correctly. The whole process actually went smoother than I expected once I stopped overthinking it. One small tip: if you have direct deposit set up for your SS benefits, you can see exactly how much was deducted for Medicare right in your bank statement, which gave me peace of mind that everything was working properly.

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm actually starting Social Security in a few months and had no idea this Medicare billing overlap issue even existed. Reading everyone's experiences here has definitely saved me from potential headaches down the road. It sounds like the key takeaway is to only pay for that transition month and let the automatic deductions handle everything else - but also to keep really good documentation in case the systems don't sync up right away. I'm definitely bookmarking this discussion to reference when my time comes. Thanks to everyone for sharing their real-world experiences with this confusing transition process!