Medicare Part B deductible basis/re-set (doctor, supplement, claim, government)

[BBCjunkie]

Okay, silly question but I can't find the answer anywhere re: Medicare specifically.

Does anyone know whether the annual Part B deductible is based on the date of service or the date the claim was processed by Medicare?

For the first time I'm going to have a doctor visit in late December (the 26th, actually) and am wondering which deductible Medicare is going to apply to it (the 2018 one, which I've already satisfied for this year; or the "re-set" 2019 one.)

Normal insurance companies typically go by date of service but as we all know, the US government isn't exactly normal, LOL

[Ariadne22]

Originally Posted by BBCjunkie

Does anyone know whether the annual Part B deductible is based on the date of service or the date the claim was processed by Medicare?

No worries, Part B deductible applies to calendar year in which service took place. Therefore, your answer is - date of service.

[BBCjunkie]

Thanks, Ariadne. :-) I had google'd, and came across a couple of links that suggested it was by "date processed". Such as this one:

"The Medicare Part B deductible is applied on a basis of first claim received, first claim applied to the deductible. This means that when the new year starts Medicare will apply your first claim or claims received to your deductible until the full deductible has been satisfied."

and

"The Part B annual deductible is applied to incurred expenses in the order in which claims for those expenses are processed by the Medicare program."

Nothing that I could find online addressed the specific situation of an expense incurred in one year but not received/processed by Medicare until the next. I guess everyone assumes that it's always date-of-service.

A little Googling can be a dangerous thing, LOL

[old_cold]

I was about to ask a similar question as I have a Hi-D supplement and want several upcoming procedures to come under this years allowance since I've already absorbed the deductible amount.