Do You Use Medicare Easy Pay?

[TromboneAl]

I can either set up recurring payments via my bank's BillPay, or sign up for Medicare Easy Pay by filling out a form and mailing it to St. Louis (and wait "6-8 weeks" for it to be processed).

Not trusting the government to handle any technology created after 1957, I'm tending toward option 1.

Do you use Easy Pay?

[MissMolly]

I use Easy Pay. When I signed up for Medicare I sent in the form at the same time. Beginning with my very first monthly payment, the money has been pulled from my account without fail and without worry on my part. I still receive a statement each month with the notation "This Is Not a Bill".

[ivinsfan]

Easy pay until our two SS checks start showing up next month..

If you can trust them to deposit your SS money you can trust them with the Easy pay. Make the pull on their end then any problems are not your fault...

[Red Badger]

Since I have to pay for DW's part A & B. I use a CC for the reward. Once we only have to pay for part B, I'll go with easy Pay.

[SumDay]

We've been doing it since DH became eligible last summer. They pulled it off without a hitch. I too was nervous, but they've given me no cause to worry more.

Only thing that bugs me is they still snail mail you a bill each month, which says "Do Not Pay". What a waste! In their defense, my retiree med premium, which is handled by a third party processor, does the same thing. #LackOfEfficiency

[Telly]

Easy Pay. It only took a few weeks to become active. The first 3 month chunk I paid by bank direct, then I later filled out the form and sent it in after that. One less thing to worry about not doing, if I should forget, become incapacitated, etc. I have also set up auto pay (they pull) when I signed up for my Plan G and Part D.


Medicare pulls on the 20th of the month, at least for me. I don't know if they stagger pull dates across the Medicare population, or if they do everyone on the 20th.

[SumDay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telly Easy Pay. It only took a few weeks to become active. The first 3 month chunk I paid by bank direct, then I later filled out the form and sent it in after that. One less thing to worry about not doing, if I should forget, become incapacitated, etc. I have also set up auto pay (they pull) when I signed up for my Plan G and Part D. Medicare pulls on the 20th of the month, at least for me. I don't know if they stagger pull dates across the Medicare population, or if they do everyone on the 20th.

Mine is on the 20th too.

And thanks for the reminder. I sent a check with the Easy Pay form (if I recall) for the first 3 months, and on month 4 they pulled it.

[SumDay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivinsfan Easy pay until our two SS checks start showing up next month.. If you can trust them to deposit your SS money you can trust them with the Easy pay. Make the pull on their end then any problems are not your fault...

Ivansfan, did you cancel the Easy Pay or do they just automatically start taking it from your SS when it kicks in?

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SumDay Ivansfan, did you cancel the Easy Pay or do they just automatically start taking it from your SS when it kicks in?

I'll let you know when it happens our SS rep said sometimes they pull the auto pay and the SS debit both for the first month but that they will do a DD back for the overpay. I suspect this might have to do with the day of the month your SS deposit occurs.

[braumeister]

Easy Pay worked perfectly for us.

And when SS began, they transitioned seamlessly with no need for action from us.

[SumDay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Easy Pay worked perfectly for us. And when SS began, they transitioned seamlessly with no need for action from us.

By "transitioned seamlessly" do you mean it continued via Easy Pay, or started being deducted from SS?

Because IF I had my druthers, I'd prefer to keep it on easy pay for 1) accounting purposes and 2) you can pay Part B from your HSA.

[KB]

I started with Easy Pay as well and it has always worked perfectly. One less thing to deal with.

[ivinsfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SumDay By "transitioned seamlessly" do you mean it continued via Easy Pay, or started being deducted from SS? Because IF I had my druthers, I'd prefer to keep it on easy pay for 1) accounting purposes and 2) you can pay Part B from your HSA.

This isn't an option...it comes out of the check now if you get a tiny check and are short every month I imagine they would use easypay for the balance.

[MissMolly]

When my husband was on Easy Pay and then began drawing at age 66, it simply transitioned from one to the other. It's possible that one extra premium was withdrawn, but if so, it was returned. I don't remember for sure, I just know that when all was said and done, everything was fine.

[audreyh1]

We finally got our Medicare payments set up for DH's account and it's running smoothly.

MidPack had related that the SS office told him that it might take more than a month for a check mailed to CMS MEDICARE to be credited to the account. This has not been our experience. It's definitely less that a month, in fact less than two weeks so far.

We are paying directly from our Fidelity HSA account.

The first couple of times we used the HSA card because we didn't have much time. Then we set it up using the Fidelity BillPay following the instructions given on the medicare.gov site. This actually send a physical check to CMS MEDICARE. One advantage at Fidelity is that you can see when the check is deposited, proving that Medicare received it. And Medicare credits it to DH's account the day after it is deposited.

The first time we scheduled the check to arrive on 8/31 (due 9/25). It was deposited by Medicare on 9/8. The second time we scheduled the check to arrive on 9/25. It was credited to the account on 9/30! So there are not huge delays, but we are scheduling it 2 weeks before due, just in case there is the occasional delay.

We're not comfortable using EasyPay to access the HSA account as there are more restrictions and would be awkward to handle reimbursements. Plus we'll have to switch to another HSA account when it approaches 0.

Yeah, we're getting a monthly paper bill. The first time we got a bill for 3 months for Part B, followed 2 months later by a bill for 3 months of Part D IRMAA. Then we started getting a monthly combined bill for both.