I was auto enrolled in Medicare part b in 10/2022. Premium was taken out on 10/3. Because ssa is a month behind and my next payment day was 11/24, I didn't notice I was enrolled. And because they take out Medicare on the 3rd of the month, they had already taken Nov premium as well. How can I get back these 2 months premium? I called ssa but they said I wouldn't get it back because my cancellation wasn't applied until 1213. I never got a Medicare card now welcome package, nor did I receive any type of notification that I was auto enrolled.

Hi. I don't know if you can get a refund. Once you're enrolled in Medicare Part B, which is automatic at age 65 if you resided in the U.S. and you're collecting Social Security benefits, you can opt out of Part B coverage. However, the termination of your Medicare coverage isn't effective until the month after the month you submit your request to opt of of further coverage. So, if you submitted your request to terminate Part B coverage in November, then the termination would be effective with December. And, if you turned 65 in October, you'd then owe Part B premiums for October and November.

In order to have avoided any Part B premiums you would have needed to decline coverage before it began, which would have been on October 1st if you turned 65 in October. However, if you live outside of the U.S. then you shouldn't have automatically been enrolled in Part B of Medicare in the first place (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0600805055). If that's the case, then I believe that you can appeal the erroneous enrollment by submitting a form SSA-521 (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms/images/SSA5/G-SSA-561-U2-1.pdf) to Social Security.

Best, Jerry