SSA continues to over-withold Part D premiums

  Some Medicare beneficiaries still are having incorrect amountswithheld from their Social Security checks for Medicare Advantage andMedicare prescription drug benefit premiums, but the programs have madesignificant improvements since 2006 in matching their databases todeduct the correct amounts, according to a recent GAO report, CQ HealthBeatreports. MA and the drug benefit — known as Medicare Parts C and D,respectively — were created by the 2003 Medicare law and broadenedprivate insurers’ role in the Medicare program.

The reportstates that the introduction of MA and the drug benefit added about 800different contracts with more than 6,000 plans and multiple paymentoptions. This confusion led to some beneficiaries having too much moneytaken out of their Social Security checks, while others having toolittle taken out. According to the report, monthly premiums forMedicare Part B “is a standard amount for most [beneficiaries] and isbased on a standard calculation for others,” while “the monthly premiumamounts for Parts C and D vary widely by plan.” GAO found that Medicareand Social Security have improved their collaboration on deductionssince 2006, but SSA still rejects about 5% of Medicare’s premiumdeduction requests. The Social Security Administration in 2006 rejected44.5% of Medicare’s requests for premium deductions, according to thereport.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday said, “Paying Medicare premiumsdirectly from Social Security benefits should be an easy way to makesure seniors don’t have to deal with a bill in the mail and to savetaxpayer dollars on administrative costs. But the way it’s set up now,the withholding process is a mess that discourages Medicare recipientsfrom signing up for it” (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 8/13).

Source:  KFF, http://kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=53964
Full report: http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-08-816R