Social Security --is there any service at all?

[Anonymous]

I am a new applicant for Medicare and SS. I have received at least three conflicting letters in the past few weeks regarding my Medicare deductions, SS benefits, IRMMA Adjustment, etc. DH and I decided to make an appointment with our local office in Reston. The phone message says make an appointments are preferred so they can serve you better. When you finally get through to the rep, she says nobody gets an appointment unless it is a medical emergency, an organ transplant, or first time applicant for SS card. What happened to appointments to "serve" us better. Apparently you have to line up an hour or so before they open in order to talk to someone that morning. The "teleworker" said she had no idea how many representatives there were because she has never been to the office.

[Anonymous]

What question do you have exactly?

[Anonymous]

You may be better off calling the Virginia state health insurance program. Social Security handles Medicare enrollment but they aren't going to counsel you or explain it to you. A SHIP can help you figure out if there's actually a problem and how to get it fixed, whether with SSA or cms.

[Anonymous]

You might check with your local senior center. Some have people trained to walk you through the process.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Sorry this is part vent/part question/part PSA.

I have a pretty good handle on what the SS benefit should be and there should be NO IRMAA adjustment. But getting SS to correct things is a huge hassle. In DH's case, he was double charged for Medicare (not claiming SS yet) by 100% for the first half of 2022. He filed a paper IRMAA correction and got 2 conflicting letters and 2 conflicting phone responses. Eventually he got a check back for the overpayment of the Part D that we had paid to SS. But the overpayment of Part B was never refunded; instead, without any explanation, they just stopped charging us for his Medicare Part B for the second half of the year and will presumably start charging again when the overpayments have been exhausted. The IRMAA surcharge is often calculated incorrectly for new retirees because it is based on the income you had 2 years ago, when you were working. I suppose a lot of people just give up and pay the excess amount. The letters say to let them know "if you disagree" and a lot of people with proposed IRMAA surcharges should be disagreeing because SS uses information from 2 years ago when you were probably working. Depending on your income, this can easily be several thousand dollar. Fortunately, this should be our last year having to dispute it for a while since the charges for 2024 will be based on 2022, our first full post-retirement year. RMDs will probably cause us to have to pay legitimate IRMAA, depending on the thresholds in place once those kick in. We'll deal with that when the time comes.

This time, both of us are being proposed IRMAA surcharges because the Medicare premiums are based on 2021, DH's final year of work. Beginning in 2022, our income was well under the IRMAA threshold; FYI, that threshold is $194,000 for 2023. Since the correction was handled so poorly for 2022, we were hoping to be proactive and settle it before 2023 in the local office with a SS employee. Their phone message at the local office encourages appointments, but the unhelpful teleworker employee said "no, you have to wait in line" and apparently the line starts before they open and is outside. Okay, we'll wait in line, but why expressly include an offer to make an appointment when they have no intention to take appointments? (Early on in 2022, DH also had some other bizarre experiences like being directed on the website to a closed SSA office in Fairfax, then locked out of the Reston one when he went to drop off his IRMAA paperwork.) Suffice it to say, this is not how a government office or any service should be run. I'm sure it will be exacerbated by the changes in benefits and charges for 2023.

In addition to the IRMAA issue, since I have received three conflicting letters, there are some other issues that I have to get clarification on that have to do with my SS benefits to start on 1/1/2023. It would have been very helpful to get an appointment instead of having to wait outside in whatever weather there may be.

Since we knew the timeline from when my DH applied for Medicare, I did start the process 90 days before my first month of eligibility. Besides the possibility that IRMAA will be incorrectly calculated for people who were working (or whose spouse was working 2 years ago), the three month lead time is another important thing to keep in mind. Note: it's three months from the first day of the month of your birthday, not three months before your birthday.

[Anonymous]

Honestly SSA is super understaffed right now and the staff brought on during the pandemic only had remote training and it wasn't good. So don't assume an appointment or going in person will resolve this. When you are in the office, if you are told wrong information, you can ask for a manager or technical expert. If it gets really fouled up, the SHIP mentioned above may be able to help you figure out how to appeal, and you can also ask your members of Congress to do an inquiry (their websites all have a "request help with a federal agency") or similar page. Good luck and be sure to vote for people who want to increase SSA's administrative finding if you want this to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly SSA is super understaffed right now and the staff brought on during the pandemic only had remote training and it wasn't good. So don't assume an appointment or going in person will resolve this. When you are in the office, if you are told wrong information, you can ask for a manager or technical expert. If it gets really fouled up, the SHIP mentioned above may be able to help you figure out how to appeal, and you can also ask your members of Congress to do an inquiry (their websites all have a "request help with a federal agency") or similar page. Good luck and be sure to vote for people who want to increase SSA's administrative finding if you want this to improve.

Thanks...The remote person doesn't seem to have a clue (and seemed proud/used it as an excuse "not to have ever been in the office"), so I will take my chances and waste a day hanging around their office to try to get this fixed. I guess we can ask for a manager if we get assigned someone who isn't any better than the teleworker (which would be difficult unless they are really just hiring warm bodies). It didn't work well for DH to do it by mail, so we'll try a different tack.

It would be overkill at this point to consider appealing to our Congressional Rep since this is a routine thing that affects many people. Plus we know the Congressional Rep and don't really want him in our business (i.e. past earnings or future income).