Welcome to Medicare School Daily, where we help you understand Medicare, save money, avoid
mistakes, and above all else, get the most out of your Medicare benefits. Now, today's topic is
how to enroll in Medicare A and B, meaning you're getting ready to retire or you're approaching 65
and now you're considering Medicare A and B. Let me give you some rules about this. Number one, for
some of you, enrollment into Medicare A and B is going to be automatic. Anyone that is turning 65
who is already receiving a Social Security check or you're retired from the railroad retirement
board, you're going to be automatically enrolled into Medicare. They know you're turning 65. They
know you're receiving retirement benefits. So they assume that you are ready to start your Medicare,
that you don't have some type of a group plan to an employer that's available. Why? Because
you're receiving these retirement benefits. And in this scenario, receiving a check,
automatically enrolled. What's going to happen to your Medicare coverage will begin the very
first day of the month that you turn 65, your birth month, with one exception. If you're born
on the first day of any month, they're going to start your Medicare coverage one month prior.
So if you're born July 1, they're going to start you June 1. If you're born on November 1, they're
going to start you in October. But if you're born on the second day thereafter, any day from the
second day thereafter, your Medicare benefits and eligibility will begin on your birth month.
And in this scenario, what's going to happen, your Medicare card will arrive
approximately one hundred days prior to your birth month. OK, it always happens that way.
And you want to be sure that you understand, now you will be automatically enrolled.
Now, if you're not on Social Security or not retired from the railroad, you're not going
to be automatically enrolled whatsoever. So that takes us to the second topic, and that's
some of you are going to need to self enroll. And that's those of you turning sixty-five,
not receiving a check. Right? The government's not going to assume anything about you because
you are not receiving those retirement benefits. So in this instance, you have to self enroll.
So let me just quickly explain that process. Number one, before now enrolling into Medicare,
you must create an SSA.gov account. Now, it's going to take you about 15 or 20 minutes to set
up that SSA.gov account. You would go to SSA.gov, and if you have an account, they'll have you enter
your username and password or they'll have you create an account. And if you're going to create
account, you'll put in your name and your address and your date of birth and your Social Security.
And once that first page is filled out, folks, here's what's going to happen. They're going to go
out; they're going to grab five credit questions. And those credit questions are going to be
questions about mortgages, maybe automobile loans or leases, sometimes student loans, credit cards.
But here's what I want you to remember about this. When they ask you the credit questions, they will
say something like this. We saw that you took a mortgage out in 1999, who was the lender? And
they'll list four different lending institutions. And the fifth option will be none of the above.
And they'll say something like, you had an automobile loan that you paid off in 2015,
who is the lender? And they'll list the four institutions or none of the above. And I don't
want you to be afraid to answer none of the above, because sometimes that is the right answer. But if
you go through all the credit questions, and you have five questions and all of them or none of the
above, that tells me that none of those credit questions were yours. Probably what's happened,
you either have a credit breach and your credit was locked down or for whatever reason, you have
launched your own credit down. So you're not going to be able to set up that SSA.gov account.
So you'll need to call your local security office, let them know you attempted to do that,
and they'll walk you through the process of how you can bypass those credit questions and set up
that SSA.gov account. So once we have the account, remember, keep your username and your password,
because every time you go in to access your records, you're going to need that username
and password, and they'll send you an eight-digit code every time. That code’s good for ten minutes,
and then you can log in with the code, and then you can look at your Social Security
records or you look at your Medicare claim forms as well. All right. So once we have the account,
now we're ready to enroll into Medicare. You can go to SSA.gov/MedicareOnly,
and that is going to be about a five to seven-minute application. It’s very,
very simple. All the answers to the questions will be right in your head, so you can do that
yourself. Very simple. If you don't want to do it that way and you'd rather have some assistance,
you have a couple of options. You can make an appointment with the local Social Security
office. And the way to do this is to go online and just type in your search SSA.gov office locator,
and they'll ask you for your zip code and then on your screen will be populated with
your local security office, what the address is, and what their phone number would be.
Remember, when you call local security office, you must do so between nine and four every day.
They're open nine to four Monday through Friday. On the weekends you'd have to call this number
right here. That's the national toll-free line. We like working with the local security office
because the whole time is much less, probably 10 or 15 minutes. You start calling in the
national line, you could be on hold for an hour or longer. All right. So either way, you can get the
assistance, and then once you've self-enrolled, you're going to have your Medicare card arrive in
the mail in approximately four weeks. All right. So some of you, if you're ready to start your
Medicare benefits, cards are going to show up in the mail because you're on Social Security. Others
of you, you're going to start your Medicare now, and you're going to have to initiate an
enrollment yourself. And so hopefully this is helpful, and we'd be delighted as a company to
walk you through this whole process. All of our Medical School Guides know how to do the
enrollments to make sure that you get in Medicare at the right time and following the right process.
Thanks for watching.