My father paid his 2nd quarter Medicare premium for 2020 but passed away in April 2020, so he had an amount due as a refund. I filed the correct paperwork in Sept 2020 with his local SS office and found out a refund was due for $288. SS says I have to contact Medicare and Medicare says I have to call SS. After calling SS, it turns out my dad filed for Medicare under my mother's name but he paid his own premiums (she is deceased). How do I go about collecting the refund that is due his estate?

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. Social Security is responsible for determining who can be paid Medicare premium refunds, and for making those refunds. It's Social Security's responsibility to get reimbursed by Medicare for such refunds.

Premium refunds due to deceased individuals are supposed to be issued to the legal representative of the deceased person's estate. If there is no estate, the person(s) eligible to receive the refund is determined in the same manner used to determine distribution of a Social Security underpayment. That priority order is explained on the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-1724.html.

If you are the legal representative of your father's estate, then Social Security should refund the amount of the excess Medicare premiums that your father paid to you. If there is no legal estate, then if you have any siblings the refund would need to be split between you and your siblings.

I can't understand why it would matter whether your father's Medicare coverage was established based on his own Social Security record or your mother's record. In any case, there's probably not much you can do other than to continue to follow up with Social Security to get them to make the refund. If you get any pushback from them regarding which agency is responsible for making the refund, you can refer them to section D from the following reference from their operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601001325. If they refuse to help you, you might also try contacting the office of your U.S. congressional representative or one of your U.S. senators to ask them to make an inquiry with Social Security on your behalf.

Best, Jerry