Educate yourself about your options
This page serves to help answer common questions about how a Reliant employee's offer of medical coverage is impacted when they turn 65 and are Medicare eligible. If you have specific questions about Medicare, please do the following 2 things:
- Look through the Medicare website - https://www.medicare.gov/ for answers to questions
- Seek advice from a local Medicare expert.
There are many choices for coverage at the age of 65. It is the responsibility of the employee to determine the best coverage for their needs.
YES, you can enroll in Medicare Part A and delay enrollment in Medicare Part B without a penalty and remain covered under Reliant's medical plan, as long as you're still employed and benefits eligible with Reliant.
In this scenario, your GuideStone employer coverage would be your primary coverage, and your Medicare Part A coverage would be secondary coverage for any hospital bills.
Reliant cannot contribute any employee or employer HSA contributions into your HSA account, as any type of Medicare enrollment disqualifies you from contributing to an HSA account.
See https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/how-do-i-get-parts-a-b/should-i-get-parts-a-b for additional information.
YES, you can delay enrollment in Medicare Part A & Medicare Part B without a penalty if you're covered under Reliant's medical plan.
See https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/how-do-i-get-parts-a-b/should-i-get-parts-a-b for additional information.
Excerpted section from the Medicare website: “People with group health coverage based on current employment may be able to delay Part A and Part B and won’t have to pay a lifetime late enrollment penalty if they enroll later. If you want to delay both Part A and Part B coverage, you don’t need to do anything when you turn 65."
If you enroll in Medicare when you are eligible at age 65, please notify Reliant you are now on Medicare coverage by completing a waiver form (see Medical Insurance Waiver Options) using the effective date of your Medicare coverage. Email the waiver form to benefits@reliant.org within 30 days of your Medicare enrollment date to ensure Reliant can stop your coverage and avoid excess medical charges to the MTD account.
If you choose to delay enrollment in Medicare, nothing needs to be done immediately. You will need to notify Reliant 6 months prior to when you do plan to enroll in Medicare so we can stop your HSA contributions and avoid you being penalized for those contributions. See the next question for more details. To notify Reliant of your upcoming Medicare enrollment, email us at benefits@reliant.org at least 6 months prior to the enrollment date, including the date you expect to enroll in Medicare and asking us to cease contributing to your HSA. You will also need to submit a waiver form to benefits@reliant.org within 30 days of your Medicare enrollment date to ensure Reliant can stop your coverage and avoid excess medical charges to the MTD account.
If you enroll in Medicare at age 65 there is no penalty for the last 6 months of HSA contributions.
If you delay enrollment in Medicare, there likely will be a penalty for HSA contributions made within the past 6 months.
Why is there a penalty?
The reason for the penalty is your Medicare Part A coverage back-dates 6 months whenever you decide to enroll the part A will be retroactively effective.
See https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/how-do-i-get-parts-a-b/should-i-get-parts-a-b for additional information.
Excerpted section from the Medicare website re: this answer: Premium-free Part A coverage:
- Begins 6 months back from the date you apply for Medicare (or Social Security/RRB benefits). To avoid a tax penalty, you should stop contributing to your Health Savings Account (HSA) at least 6 months before you apply for Medicare.
- Begins no earlier than the first month you were eligible for Medicare.
How can I avoid a penalty on my HSA contributions:
If a Reliant employee delays enrollment of Medicare past age 65, is the responsibility of the Reliant employee to notify Reliant of their decision to enroll in medicare 6 months prior to the enrollment, so that we can stop all HSA contributions. To notify Reliant of your upcoming Medicare enrollment, email us at benefits@reliant.org at least 6 months prior to the enrollment date, including the date you expect to enroll in Medicare and asking us to cease contributing to your HSA.
See Solomon excerpt from HSA page: https://solomon.reliant.org/display/fieldbenefits/HSA+-+Health+Savings+Account
Yes, Reliant does offer Continuance for dependents for a maximum of 18 months. See Medical Continuance Coverage for further details.
Additional Option: Reliant has seen a number of employees that have younger spouses stay on their Reliant employer coverage (delaying Medicare part A&B) until their spouse is Medicare eligible, so that they can continue to provide medical benefits to their spouse.
