How to sign up for Medicare

Terry Sullivan56 said:BUMP

Same here, honestly.

Nothing left to do but take my paperwork to the local office tomorrow. I emailed Medicare, but there's been no word yet. I've tried five different tech support numbers they provided, but nobody even picks up the phone...🙂

Jamie Ortiz3 said:Nothing left to do but take my paperwork to the local office tomorrow. I emailed Medicare, but there's been no word yet. I've tried five different tech support numbers they provided, but nobody even picks up the phone...🙂

Look, if you already filed that person through the online retirement portal, they aren't going to accept a manual application at the health insurance desk. Once you start a process that way, you have to see it through to the end. That's just how the bureaucracy works.

I've been there. Proven fact.

Terry Sullivan56 said:Look, if you already filed that person through the online retirement portal, they aren't going to accept a manual application at the health insurance desk. Once you start a process that way, you have to see it through to the end. That's just how the bureaucracy works.

I've been there. Proven fact.

Wait, is this actually happening now??!! Up until lately, they were always so reliable about processing those physical forms at the local county offices... maybe things are changing in the system.

Terry Sullivan56 said:Look, if you already filed that person through the online retirement portal, they aren't going to accept a manual application at the health insurance desk. Once you start a process that way, you have to see it through to the end. That's just how the bureaucracy works.

I've been there. Proven fact.

They will, though. Using the online health portal isn't mandatory—you can always just head down to the local office window. My wife actually just heard that from someone over at the Social Security Administration today.

It’ll work, but we don't even have an electronic health record system set up yet since it isn't mandatory. They handle our transfers and discharges through the portal just fine, though nothing goes through until the Social Security Administration processes the registration—you need that barcode first. That said, you can always work something out. I usually just have my people keep the physical paperwork to meet the eight-day deadline, then I'll follow up by emailing a scan of the processed Social Security filing to the representative once it's ready (assuming they actually have an email address, which not all of our staff do).

Well, they totally threw me under the bus.

It’s not even that it’s impossible, it’s just... look, if your Social Security stuff went through electronically, then your Medicare paperwork has to follow suit. At least, that's what I was told. And honestly? If they're feeding me lies, I'm happy to feed them some right back. 🤷

I’ll go ahead and double-check my own medical records too.

Anyway, I managed to sort out that little headache from earlier by following the instructions from ini5.

Basically, you get an Active Client and deal with those Windows issues. Once I did that, everything finally clicked. Oh, and one more thing—I had to strip all the special characters and symbols out of the filenames; that was a bit of a pain. Also, the digital signature part was tricky. Whatever changes after you sign it, you have to re-sign the whole thing. And for heaven's sake, don't forget about the Z. btw. You don't need to sign the attachments, though.

It hasn't quite synced up on my end yet, so I'm still submitting everything on paper, even though I managed to file my retirement paperwork through the online portal without any issues...

Wait, who was it that suggested I should give my insurance provider a call since my digital certificate was just renewed recently? 🙂

So, my company just got the green light from the agency to send two of our workers off for some professional training. Does anyone here know if filing the paperwork with Medicare and the SSA works the same way it does for a standard full-time gig? Like, is there a different process for this kind of thing?
Also, when I’m logging onto the Digital USGS site, am I actually going to need to scan up the employment contract to prove the training setup?
Seriously, if anyone knows the drill, please help me out here.

Robin Kern76 said:So, my company just got the green light from the agency to send two of our workers off for some professional training. Does anyone here know if filing the paperwork with Medicare and the SSA works the same way it does for a standard full-time gig? Like, is there a different process for this kind of thing?
Also, when I’m logging onto the Digital USGS site, am I actually going to need to scan up the employment contract to prove the training setup?
Seriously, if anyone knows the drill, please help me out here.

When you're registering with the CDC, you should select "Professional Training without Employment" as your insurance basis (assuming that's the specific program you're in). However, the system usually forces you to pick an employment type to move forward. Since your training agreement isn't technically a standard labor contract, just select "Fixed-term Contract" (since these programs usually run for a year or two) and set it to full-time. That usually bypasses the error message.
You'll also need to submit a signed copy of your training agreement along with the official approval letter from the state employment office.

I ran into a snag with Medicare—they emailed me saying my application was rejected because I submitted Form 1 instead of Form 2. In my case, I ended up having to handle the whole thing manually in person.

Brenda Chase3 said:When you're registering with the CDC, you should select "Professional Training without Employment" as your insurance basis (assuming that's the specific program you're in). However, the system usually forces you to pick an employment type to move forward. Since your training agreement isn't technically a standard labor contract, just select "Fixed-term Contract" (since these programs usually run for a year or two) and set it to full-time. That usually bypasses the error message.
You'll also need to submit a signed copy of your training agreement along with the official approval letter from the state employment office.

I ran into a snag with Medicare—they emailed me saying my application was rejected because I submitted Form 1 instead of Form 2. In my case, I ended up having to handle the whole thing manually in person.

Thanks for the heads-up.
I just hit send on the application itself, totally forgot the extra documentation.
Is there a way to send the supporting docs after the fact?

Edit: Fixed everything thanks to a super sweet lady over at the Medicare office.

Jamie Ortiz3 said:Leola, did you ever figure out that attachment issue? It’s giving me trouble too... Files are PDFs, no weird characters in the filenames, but they still won't upload. Has anyone else dealt with this...

A bit late getting back to this (busy day). It worked—or rather, it fixed itself. Just make sure the folder where you're saving those PDFs doesn't have any non-English characters in the directory path. That was the culprit.

They haven't done a damn thing for us in months... Last we heard, the access panels from the local clinic are being sent over to the regional lab in Phoenix. If we don't get things moving within a week, we’re supposed to call them at 052/855190

Couldn't get any actual useful info... I called the women's health line at 062112233 and they basically gave me some nonsense about a river?? And then they have the nerve to tell me to contact my local health department??

Quick question; I’m offboarding an employee on May 31st... which falls on a Saturday. When exactly do I need to head over to Medicare to finalize the deregistration? Should I go tomorrow (Friday) or wait until Monday, considering there's a 24-hour window? Thanks.

If you’re running a small operation with fewer than three employees and you intend to file the paperwork in person, Monday is your best bet.
While you technically have the option to submit everything online earlier—say, on a Friday—I’m not entirely certain about their policy regarding physical drop-offs. They haven't historically been known to accept paper filings ahead of schedule, so it might be wiser to play it safe and wait until Monday...

I gave her a call; she said Monday works for me.

David Parker44 said:I gave her a call; she said Monday works for me.

Did she say you could, or that you have to?
In other words, would Friday be an option?
It would be helpful for our future planning to know. 😉

She just told me Monday works, so Friday might be an option too! But I don't want to haul everything by hand... honestly, I doubt I can pull it off by Friday.

goca25 said:If an employee's last day of their notice period is May 30th—meaning tomorrow—should I process their termination for that date, or can I push it to May 31st so there isn't a gap in their service history?

You can totally go with May 31st—just make sure that's clearly stated in the termination notice itself...

I will be processing my termination through MyMedicare once my fixed-term contract expires.
Should I include my final contract—the one clearly stating the expiration date—as an attachment alongside the M-2P form, or is there some other documentation required?

I’m looking for some guidance here. This past Friday, we filed the initial registration paperwork for our bookkeeping firm with the Social Security Administration, along with a power of attorney for another small business we manage, which we intend to use for handling their employee enrollments. However, when I log into the online portal, the system only grants me access to filings for our own bookkeeping firm; there is absolutely no option to manage or report for the hospitality business we are trying to represent.
Is it possible we missed a specific form or a secondary authorization? Did we need to submit something electronically to establish our authority over that second business? I have tried calling the helpline for the online portal, but I can't get anyone to pick up the phone.