The Social Security Fairness Act May Change How You Pay Medicare Premiums

Medicare Health Insurance Card. Social Security Card with Stethoscope and pen

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If your Social Security check is increasing due to the Social Security Fairness Act, how you pay for your Medicare premiums may change. Most people have their Medicare Part B medical insurance premium deducted automatically from their Social Security benefit payment, unless the check is too small to cover the costs.

Public sector employees whose Social Security benefits were previously reduced by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) may not have had a large enough check to cover the Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, and may have paid part or all of their Medicare premiums directly. The increase in their monthly benefit may upend this arrangement and require action to cancel or alter current automatic payment arrangements.

What to do if you pay for Medicare directly

Retired public sector employees eligible for an increase under the SSFA should have received notices from the SSA about the changes to their benefits. Retirees should wait to receive this notice before changing any Medicare payment arrangements and should continue to follow the instructions on their Medicare premium bill and pay the bill to ensure their Medicare coverage does not stop.

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Once the increased benefit is in place, the Medicare premium will be deducted from the monthly payment. If the benefit is still not enough to cover the Medicare premium, the person will be billed for the remainder.

Prepaid premiums. You are eligible for a refund if your premiums were prepaid to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and will now be deducted from your monthly Social Security benefits. No request for a refund is necessary; you will receive any applicable refund automatically.

Requesting a Refund If you don’t receive your refund automatically, you can request it by following these steps:

First, call Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to verify the overpayment.
Second, contact the Social Security Administration to see if your premiums were deducted from your Social Security benefits.
If required, submit a written refund request and relevant documentation, such as billing statements and bank records.

What happens if your Medicare premium is deducted from your Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuity?

If your premiums are currently deducted from your CSRS annuity, and you are now eligible for Social Security benefits, the SSA will now deduct the Medicare premiums from your monthly Social Security benefits. Contact SSA, not the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), if you have any questions about your premiums.

How to stop Medicare Easy Pay

If you were paying your premiums through Medicare Easy Pay, there are two ways to stop the payments from being deducted from your bank account.

By mail. Fill out, print, and mail the “Authorization Agreement for Pre-authorized Payments” form (SF-5510) and indicate the type of change you want to make on the form. Mail the completed form to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Premium Collection Center, P.O. Box 979098, St. Louis, MO 63197-9000.

You can download the form using this link to Medicare.gov or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048.

Online. Log in to your secure Medicare account, then select "My Premiums" and then "See or change my Medicare Easy Pay" to complete a short, online form.

It can take up to 4 weeks for your automatic deductions to stop.

Online payments. If you pay directly from your savings or checking account through your bank's online bill payment service, cancel the transaction.

Didn't get your SSFA increase yet?

If you were expecting a lump sum back payment and an upward adjustment to your monthly benefits and haven't received it yet, it's time to contact the Social Security Administration.

As of June 13, 2025, the SSA had processed 2.6 million, or 94% of cases that are eligible for SSFA relief. However, they have cautioned that "complex cases" can take longer. As such, it's worth a phone call or visit to your local Social Security office to check the status of your benefits.

There is good news if your case is still pending: the SSA updated the timeline and expects all beneficiary records to be updated by November 2025, a month earlier than the previous projection.

You can call the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 — or TTY number 1-800-325-0778, if you’re deaf or hard of hearing. Representatives are available between 8:00 am – 7:00 pm, Monday through Friday. For a shorter wait time, try calling early in the day. between 8 am and 10 am local time or early afternoon. You can locate your local field office on the SSA website by entering your zip code or by calling the 800 number to have a representative assist you.

Donna joined Kiplinger as a personal finance writer in 2023. She spent more than a decade as the contributing editor of J.K.Lasser's Your Income Tax Guide and edited state specific legal treatises at ALM Media. She has shared her expertise as a guest on Bloomberg, CNN, Fox, NPR, CNBC and many other media outlets around the nation. She is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and the University at Buffalo.