Medicare IRMAA appeal due to life changing event (SSA-44) (plan, claim, monthly)

[BellaDL]

We are quite frustrated with the Medicare IRMAA appeal process. We have filed form SSA-44 (Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount - Life-Changing Event) several times without knowing for sure whether the SS office will eventually agree to adjust our Medicare premiums based on our ACTUAL income for the year.

I stopped working at the end of November 2015. My husband applied for Medicare part B and D in April 16 and the IRMAA was assessed based on our 2014 income.

We filed form SSA-44 in April showing a decrease in expected 2016 income due to work stoppage. SS accepted our appeal and reduced IRMAA to the indicated 2016 income level.

We filed our 2015 income tax on 10/15. In November we received a notice from SS office stating that since our 2015 income was even higher than 2014 (my severance payment was paid in 2015!) so they will use 2014 income for IRMAAs! We called SS office and was told that all we have to do was to file another SSA-44 form. The explanation was that the letter we received was just a standard form sending to many people in November.

We refiled the SSA-44 form with a cover letter explaining that the life changing event occurred late in 2015 so that the reduction in our income did not occur until 2016. We did not hear anything from SS regarding our appeal. Yesterday, we got another SS office letter which is basically the same as the November letter. The only difference is that we have 60 days instead of 10 days to appeal.

When we talked to the SS rep on the phone last month, we could not get her to state how SS determines the appropriate IRMAA for a given year. I did get a verbal statement from a rep at the local SS office when we first filed our SSA-44 form that if our actual 2016 income turned out to be higher than our estimated income, we will have to pay more later, and if it was lower, we would get a refund. I did a lot of searching online but could not find any confirmation for his statement.

At this point, we think that it is futile to refile the same SSA-44 form one more time. Since we have 60 days to appeal, I plan to file our 2016 income tax in January (after getting all the needed documents and tax information) and attach a copy of 2016 tax form to the appeal. I am crossing my finger that the appeal will go through and we will get a refund (my husband will start receiving his SS in January and was informed that SS office will deduct our 2016 underpayment amount from his first payment!!).

It is quite interesting that few weeks ago, we received the SS letter for 2017 IRMAA. We filed another SSA-44 form with the same information given in our 2016 form. Within a week, we get a letter from SS showing the 2017 Medicare premiums with IRMAAs based on the SSA-44 form indicated lower income instead of our 2015 income!

I would appreciate information from experts on this IRMAA appeal process or who were in similar situation.

[bigbear99]

This sounds completely normal in process. It's just the explanations that are lacking. SSA always looks back two years. For 2016 they looked at 2014. For next year, they looked at 2015. So until your income as shown on your returns drops, you'll get letters. I stopped work 12/31/15 and filed an appeal based on expected 2016 income without problem. Got a new letter last month. Went to the local office to file an appeal again, with no apparent problem.

IMHO, the thing you should do is the same as you did for this year.

BTW, had a 5 minute wait at the local office. Only one there. The area had a snowstorm which seems to be just enough to keep most seniors home.

[BellaDL]

Originally Posted by bigbear99

This sounds completely normal in process.
....
IMHO, the thing you should do is the same as you did for this year.

What frustrated us is that we already repeated the appeal (filed the original SSA-44 form in April, filed it again in November) then get another SS letter in December as if they never received our November appeal form.

Regarding local SS office, we have visited it 4 times with 50% rate of 'accuracy'. Two times the reps gave the wrong information and the other two, the reps were right.

Rather than waiting until January after filing our 2016 taxes to appeal, I am thinking of just sending another appeal letter to see how it goes!

[bigbear99]

call first. Was the December letter a denial of your appeal? I bet not. I bet it happened automatically, probably before your November appeal was processed. So call and ask if they got it. Be prepared to wait on hold an hour or so - speaker phones are useful for this. Or use their automated call back. I used it last week and they actually called when they promised. Very surprising.

[mariettacityuser]

My wife and I both filed our 2018 SSA-44 appeals for IRMAA in early December. Essentially same information as 2017's appeal. Frustrating that have to do it twice for a single life-change event. I received my acceptance eliminating IRMAA charges for 2018 by end of December. My wife has not received anything feedback. It's now early February and we keep getting billed at the higher rate! She called. Spent over an hour in phone queue only to be told that we would have to go to the local SSA office since the claim the phone number published on the back of the bill can't address any status on SSA-44 filings. Waited 1/2 day in the local SSA office only to be told they shouldn't have sent us there, the matter was up to MEDICARE BILLING. ??? At this point, very frustrated, they took down our information and made a request on our behalf. That was 4 weeks ago. Nothing. So now what? Just received my wife's second notice saying we're behind in payments. Keep paying the high rate for 2018 even though one of us has the lower one, and both of us didn't have this payment in 2017? The local office tells me, that if we keep paying, eventually the paperwork should catch up with itself and it'll sort itself out whatever that means. Meanwhile, my bank account keeps dwindling since we're paying a lot more than budgeted for Medicare!