u/pooch_reddit

Hello,

My wife retired at the very end of 2025. Her employer assured her that her Aetna coverage was paid (via payroll deduction) through January 2026. So when she applied for Medicare Part B, she specified a start date of February 1, 2026. In mid-January, we were billed for and paid for 3 months of coverage (February, March, and April; 3 x $202.90, or $608.70).

But then her claims to Aetna for doctor visits in January were declined because, according to Aetna, her coverage ended in December 2025. It turns out her employer’s retirement advisor was wrong, so she should have started Medicare Part B coverage on January 1, 2026.

We submitted the form to request that her Part B start date be changed from February 1 to January 1. Apparently, this request was processed by Medicare by cancelling her coverage and starting it over again a month earlier. I say this because she first got a new Medicare card on which Part B had been removed, then the next day she got another card showing Part B with a start date of January 1, 2026.

All seemed fine until her monthly bills started showing the next month’s payment due, plus a Past Due balance of $608.70. But when she logs in to medicare.gov and gets her payment history, the original $608.70 payment of January 12 is indeed there, along with the subsequent payments of $202.90.

So I think that by canceling and restarting her coverage that initial payment of $608 70 got lost somewhere even though it still shows in her payment list.

After several long calls with Medicare and Social Security, this still isn’t resolved. We’re getting bounced between Medicare and Social Security. One of the agents said the problem is with a third-party billing system. Another said we should ask Social Security to perform an audit. One agent said we might have to wait until they cancel her Part B due to the outstanding balance and then we might be able to get this straightened out. (No way we’re going to do this.)

I’m writing here today to see if anyone has gone through anything similar and/or can suggest whatever magic incantation we might try next.

Thanks very much for any advice you can provide!