Due to widespread phone issues recently experienced by the Social Security Administration, many people are being disconnected or cannot even get through. This has resulted in thousands of beneficiaries missing or delaying their intended enrollment in premium part A and Medicare part B. Due to this widespread issue, guidance has been issued to provide a special enrollment period for those unable to enroll due to this outage.
This SEP will allow beneficiaries to enroll in premium part A and part B throughout this year. Coverage will begin the month after enrolling, or as early as it should have started, had they enrolled as desired. This enrollment period will expire on December 30, 2022. Any Late enrollment penalties will be waived for the period of time you could have been enrolled had you been able to sign up during the original election.
This will be a fantastic way to help clients that were unable to contact social security before:
the end of the General Enrollment Period on March 31, 2022
63 days after the end of employer coverage
the end of their Initial Enrollment Period
other enrollment periods for Medicare part B or premium part A
For the full details on this Special Enrollment Period, please read the notice posted on both Social Security and Medicare websites linked below.