If you submit an incomplete Medicare plan enrollment application and do not select a payment option, your newly chosen Medicare
plan will usually call you to add any missing information.
However, each Medicare Part D or Medicare Advantage plan typically has a “default”
option for monthly premium payments chosen automatically if you forgot to
choose a payment option on your enrollment application.
So if you forgot to choose a payment option when completing your enrollment application, then the Medicare plan may just choose the "default" option for you.
The default payment option can be different
for each Medicare plan provider. For
instance, you may have your premium monthly payments automatically deducted from you
Social Security check or you may receive a coupon payment book in the mail.
Your Medicare Part D enrollment application may state:
"How
do you want to pay?
You can pay your monthly premium (including any late enrollment penalty you may owe) by mail or from your bank account through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). You can also choose to pay your premium by automatic deduction from your Social Security or Railroad Retirement Board benefit check each month.
. . .
Note: If you have a late enrollment penalty (LEP), we’ll add it to your premium.
If you don’t choose an option, we’ll send a bill each month to your mailing address." [emphasis added]
Read more about payment options:
Is there a recommended way to pay monthly Medicare Part D premiums?
When in doubt, you can always telephone your
plan’s Member Services department an ask about your current premium
payment
method (the toll-free number is on your Member ID card and most of your
plan's printed material). You can then let the Member Services
representative know if you wish to change to another payment option.
If you cannot find your Member ID card with the number for Member Services, we also have most Medicare plan Member Services
numbers online if you click on the plan name using our
Medicare
Advantage Plan Finder or
Medicare Part D Plan Finder.
Related Note: Automatic Social Security check deduction premium payment option not allowed.
We have learned that some people who chose to have their monthly
premiums automatically deducted from their Social Security check
received letters stating that this premium payment option is not
available - even when these people have always used Social Security
deductions to pay their premiums.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a document
in December 2017 entitled, “Withholding Medicare Prescription Drug
Premium from Your 2018 Social Security Payment”
The new document states that if you make a Medicare plan change,
"[d]epending on when you made your enrollment decision, you may be asked
to pay your new plan directly for a while. If that happens, you’ll get a
bill or payment book from your new drug plan telling you the amount you
owe. Your new plan will expect you to pay premiums directly until
premium withhold is started with your new plan. You may need to contact
the plan to let them know you still want to have premium withholding."
The CMS document continues:
“Example: You enrolled at the end of Open Enrollment and
chose to have your premiums withheld from your Social Security payment.
However, you just got a payment book from your drug plan saying you owe
$36.50 each month, starting in January 20[2x]. You call the plan, and
the plan says that it didn’t get your request for enrollment in time to
arrange for your January premium to be withheld. The plan says it will
request to have the premiums withheld from your Social Security payment
starting in February. You’ll need to send your premium payment for
January directly to your plan.”
So some Medicare plans may not allow Social Security check premium
deduction at the
start of the year, although this was the chosen payment option on their
enrollment application. Instead, our readers were told to either
send
the first premium payment by check or submit the Electronic
Funds Transfer request.
When contacted,
Member Services said that they would be send the forms to request the Social
Security payment option - as per the CMS guidance.
Have you had a
similar experience? Please
click here to let us know.