Social Security and Medicare Part B confusion - do we need it with employer coverage?

Your husband doesn't need Part B while covered under your employer plan! He can definitely decline it if your employer has 20+ employees. You'll need to complete Form CMS-L564 "Request for Employment Information" that your employer needs to sign, proving he has current coverage. Then submit that with Form CMS-1763 "Request for Termination of Premium Hospital and/or Supplementary Medical Insurance". He can disenroll and won't face penalties later as long as he enrolls within 8 months after your employer coverage ends.

I went through this exact situation last year with my wife. The SSA automatically enrolls everyone in Part B when they start collecting retirement benefits, but you can definitely opt out if you have qualifying employer coverage. It's crucial that your employer has 20+ employees though - if it's a smaller company, different rules apply and you might actually need to keep Part B to avoid future penalties.

you need to go to ssocial securityy office in person with proof of your work insuranse. they did same thing to my husband and took $$ for 3 months before we fixed it!! make appointment now don't wait

When I tried to opt out of Part B while collecting Social Security, I had to jump through SO MANY HOOPS. The system is deliberately confusing because they WANT everyone enrolled in Part B regardless of whether you need it or not. I had coverage through my wife's job but still had to provide mountains of paperwork proving it was "creditable coverage" - and even then they still took out premiums for TWO MONTHS before processing my disenrollment. Then waited another 6 weeks for refunds! The whole system is broken!!

I was in literally this same situation! SSA and Medicare are actually separate agencies even though they seem connected which makes everything twice as complicated. Your husband needs to contact Medicare directly about canceling Part B, not Social Security. My husband wasted weeks talking to the wrong people before figuring this out!

After trying for weeks to reach someone at Social Security about my Medicare Part B issue (similar to yours), I discovered a service called Claimyr that got me connected to an actual SSA agent in under 20 minutes! Saved me hours of hold time and frustration. Their system works with the SSA phone system to get you through the queues. I watched their video demo (https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU) and was skeptical but it actually worked. I was able to get my Part B situation completely resolved in one call after weeks of trying on my own. Just sharing since you mentioned not being able to get through on the 800 number.

My friend had the same problem when he signed up for SS benefits. He had coverage through his wife but they signed him up for Part B anyway. Don't you just love government efficiency? 🙄

be careful cancling part B!! my sister did that and when she tried to get it back later they made her wait till special enrollment period and charged her more money forever!! make sure u really don't need it

Update: I finally got through to someone at Medicare this morning! They confirmed what many of you said - my husband CAN disenroll from Part B without penalty since I have employer coverage. We need to submit those two forms mentioned earlier and should get a refund for premiums already paid. They said processing could take 6-8 weeks but at least we're on the right track now. Thank you all for your help!