Preparing for Online Medicare Signup - Odd prep material needed?

[Telly]

On August 1st the window opens for my 3-months-before-my-birthday signup for Medicare. I will have it start the 1st of my 65 birthday month. In preparation for August, I have been looking at the online signup procedure at medicare.gov. They have a "Checklist for Online Medicare, Retirement and Spouses Applications":
https://www.ssa.gov/hlp/isba/10/isba-checklist.pdf

Background - I have been Early-Retired for many years. My present pre-Medicare insurance is through DW's employer with me as spouse, which I have been on for well more than 10 years. Before that, maybe 2 years on my own private insurance, and before that, decades on my then-employers plans. Also, I am delaying SS to age 70, so SS signup doesn't come into it at all.

Looking only at the checked items needed for Medicare enrollment, I am befuddled by two items, which are both under the banner "Current Health Insurance". I copied them out separately below:

the first item:
·Employment start and end dates for the current employer (of you or your spouse) who provides your health insurance coverage through a Group Health Plan

the second item:
·Start and end dates for the Group Health Insurance provided by you (or your spouse’s) current employer

For the first befuddlement item, DW is working, and will continue to work for awhile. So she has no "employment end date". And is her current employer "start date" over 10 years ago really needed/relevant?

For the second item, Group Health Insurance "end date" would make sense, if they are asking me when I want my Medicare to start, as that would be the 1st of my birthday month. I don't see the relevance of what the "start date" of the Group Health Insurance" is.

Maybe when I go online to fill it all out in August, as the copy said in the back pages of magazines many years ago hawking wonder cures or questionable products "all secrets will be revealed".

But my nature is to plan ahead, minimize/eliminate surprises wherever possible. It's possible I am misunderstanding what they are saying above... Any advice?

 

[MBSC]

Looking only at the checked items needed for Medicare enrollment, I am befuddled by two items, which are both under the banner "Current Health Insurance". I copied them out separately below:

the first item:
·Employment start and end dates for the current employer (of you or your spouse) who provides your health insurance coverage through a Group Health Plan

the second item:
·Start and end dates for the Group Health Insurance provided by you (or your spouse’s) current employer

Some people delay Part B enrollment past age 65 when their current employer (or spouse's employer) plan will be primary to Medicare. When that primary employer coverage ends, they can then enroll in Part B without a Late Enrollment Penalty (LEP) provided the employer affirms continuous group coverage since age 65 by completing the date fields in Section B of form CMS-L564.

The dates are irrelevant for those claiming Part B at 65.

Form CMS-L564: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/CMS-Forms/CMS-Forms/Downloads/CMS-L564E.pdf

Checklist to determine if Part B enrollment can be delayed: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Ed...ers-and-Unions/FS3-Enroll-in-Part-A-and-B.pdf

 

[Telly]

THANKS! That is exactly what I needed to know!

I had not considered that the checklist for Medicare threw in everything, to cover the other enrollment possibilities. Which was sort of funny for me to miss, because a few months ago I was weighing staying on DW's high deductible plan as spouse and delaying both Part A & B to a later date. But after looking through costs of premiums, we can save almost $4k a year by me going my own way onto Medicare. DW's insurance, in effect, subsidizes the employee's premium by jacking the addition of a spouse way way up. And with Medicare + Supplement + Part D, the deductibles will go way down compared to what I have now.