If you are receiving Social Security benefits, It’s time to dig through your Christmas mail and find your annual notice from the Social Security Administration. It says “Important Social Security Information” on the outside. Inside you will learn that your Social Security benefit will increase by 1.7 percent. Then you will learn that a portion of it was taken away with a 5% increase in your Part B premium, which increased from $99.90 per month to $104.90.
The report will show your new monthly amount minus:
Part B premium deduction: $104.90
Part D Prescription premium if you selected this option: ______
The voluntary Federal tax withholding if you selected it: ______
Then it will show your net deposit in your bank account: ______
Those who have been receiving a check must switch to an electronic payment by March 1, 2013. For information visit www.godirect.org or call 1-800-333-1795.
If you have higher income you will get a visit from IRMA, (Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts),your friendly rate adjustment messenger. Fewer than 5% of Medicare beneficiaries are affected now but within the next ten years that number will increase to about 20% because the Affordable Care Act froze the index threshold established under the Prescription Drug Act of 2003 which was originally indexed with inflation and increased every year leaving the number of beneficiaries assessed small so most folks wouldn’t be affected by IRMA.
Now many of the baby boomers with Adjusted Gross Incomes of $85k for individuals and $170K for couples can join IRMA’s club and pay the higher Part B premiums. I put that in there to make the 5% folks feel better knowing that they will no longer feel like they have been singled out with these adjustments. With 11,000 new baby boomers entering Medicare every day, the IRMA Club will be growing rapidly as many boomers will retire with AGI incomes within the $85k and $170k thresholds.
Please pay attention to your important Social Security annual report. I found my wife’s copy buried under the Christmas card mail this morning, so I wanted to alert the rest of you receiving Social Security benefits to look for it now before it’s lost in the trash. Good luck.
Happy Holidays and best wishes to all. I’ll get out a report about our very successful Annual Election review of Medicare prescription plans. We reviewed more than 230 individual plans since October 15th, and provided our members with savings values exceeding $175,000 dollars. The prescription drug program is a moving target, and unless you review your plan every year, you may be leaving thousands of dollars on the table which will be absorbed as profit for the insurance providers.
Coach
