Action required by members who requested to have their premiums withheld by SSA/RRB in 2019
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have notified insurance carriers of an issue affecting all Medicare members who elected to pay plan premiums from their Social Security Administration (SSA) or Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) check.
Normally, when members select this premium payment option, the SSA/RRB withholds funds from members’ SSA/RRB checks to cover their plan premiums. Unfortunately, due to a system issue, this did not occur for two or more months starting February 1, 2019. This issue affected all carriers and although the system issue is now fixed, the SSA/RRB cannot retroactively deduct premium payments from members’ checks.
All of the insurance companies have mailed, or will be mailing letters to the affected members with instructions. It is important to review these letters as each company may handle future payments differently.
What do members need to do?
Members now have past-due accounts and have been automatically reverted back to receive a direct bill from their insurance company. It is important to pay any past-due premium amounts to avoid termination at a later date.
Although this issue is out of VibrantUSA and many of our insurance carriers’ control, we realize this is an inconvenience to our clients and are here to help. Should you have any questions or concerns, please give our agents a call at 866-733-5111.
