A recent mailing from OneExchange about Medicare part B premium recurring reimbursements couldn't have been more confusing in both the content and the timing. There is no explaining why they chose to send out that mailing now. It seems to me they could have done it months ago. People are confused enough right now about whether or not they need to do anything for enrollment.
Here's the deal on HRA reimbursements. You can get reimbursements two ways. It can be recurring or you can file for them yourself. You can get reimbursed for bills such as your insurance premiums, your copays (aka coinsurance), doctor bills for doctors that do not take Medicare. Medicare part B premiums are just "insurance premiums".
In an earlier post I mentioned that people who could afford to "pre-pay" insurance policy premiums for an entire year and then submit the claim to OneExchange to be reimbursed were able to very quickly "drain" their HRA accounts and were done with any reimbursement paperwork by February. However, you cannot do that with Medicare part B premiums. The federal government is not setup for "prepay"!
Reminder for those people who retired before 1997 and get SHAP reimbursement for part B premiums up to a maximum of $900 - you can only apply for reimbursement from OneExchange for the remaining amount of part B payments you make ($358.80 if your part B is $104.90 in 2014).
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I just submitted a claim for the $358.80. I included a copy of my four 2014 quarterly reimbursements($900) from the Acclaris website, and a copy of my 2014 SS statement showing my 2014 part B premium was $104.90 per month. Since this is the first time people will be submitting this type of claim, I hope all goes well.
ReplyDeleteAll went well, they just put $358.80 into my checking acct.
ReplyDeletePlato posted that you could submit a claim to OE after you received your $900 from SHAP for the balance of $358.80. That is absolutely correct. This is what I do with no problem whatsoever. Referring to the 1st paragraph in your post you ask why they sent out that mailing? I sure don't know, but all it did was imply to some retirees to set up their Part B for recurring expenses for $104.90 a month. Now if they were eligible for SHAP ( go to Page 47 in the SPD) and they filled out the SHAP form after the OE request, it appeared to Acclaris that they were trying to double dip when they really were not. A real mess ensued that has come up in 2015 as retirees are doing things in the wrong sequence. I have been working with OE and IBM to get this fixed by sending out clarifying documentation to any retiree they sent that stupid mailing to. They do not see that there is a problem so I have taken it upon myself to create a document that describes how to recover if you submitted Part B to OE first and then tried to submit the balance to SHAP. It should have been done by submitting to SHAP first and the balance to OE as James Ford and I have.
ReplyDeletePLATO, My question to you is; this Word Document is 3 pages long and I need to know if you want me to post it here or find some other way to get the information out to whoever needs it? Thanks.
Attila
Posting up the whole 3 page doc would be too long to put in a blog post. If you have a Google account - put it into Google docs I will put the link in a new post. You'd publish it as a web page. Here is a how to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBh8bMC7XEU
DeleteReply to me with the link and I will put it in a new post. That will also allow you to update the document whenever you want.