IRMAA premium review and reconsideration
Health coverage, Medicare savings, prescriptions, and help understanding your options.
A directory listing, not an eligibility decision.
UniHealth can identify a possible match, but the responsible program makes the final decision.
What to know
- Why it may fit
- Your circumstances can be checked against the program’s published guidelines.
- What to do next
- Does your income make your Medicare Part B or drug coverage cost extra? This extra charge is called IRMAA. If your income dropped, you can ask Social Security to lower it.
- Who runs it
- Social Security
What the program may consider
- Tax year used for the 2026 premium determination
- Tax filing table used by Social Security
- 2026 Part B and Part D IRMAA tier from modified adjusted gross income
- You have an IRMAA notice or initial determination
- One of the eight SSA-44 life-changing events or corrected tax data
- Event caused a significant MAGI reduction
- Event and reduced-income evidence
- Social Security makes the final premium or reconsideration decision
How to get it
Does your income make your Medicare Part B or drug coverage cost extra? This extra charge is called IRMAA. If your income dropped, you can ask Social Security to lower it.
Before you start
- You need this first Original Medicare. This is for people with Part B or drug coverage. You must have a letter that sets an extra income-based amount.
How to apply
Request to lower an income-based Medicare charge after a life change
For when your income dropped after a life event, like retiring, divorce, or a spouse's death.
- Onlinemy Social Security accountSee your letters and send some forms online. Only you should sign in to your account.
- PhoneSocial Security: 1-800-772-1213TTY 1-800-325-0778
- In personYour local Social Security officeUse the office finder for the address and hours.
You can also use: Request for Social Security to review a decision
Ask within 60 days of getting the letter you disagree with.
Getting help
Someone can apply for you
A helper can fill out the form with you. You sign it, or you can ask by phone yourself. If Social Security pays your benefits to a payee, the payee can ask. A registered person you name on form SSA-1696 can also ask for you.
A helper can fill it out, but you still sign: ask for Claimant's Appointment of a Representative (SSA-1696).
What happens after you apply
Social Security mails a letter that sets the extra amount. It usually uses your tax return from 2 years before.
Social Security
If a life event lowered your income, ask for a new decision. Events include retiring, working less, marriage, divorce, or a spouse's death.
YouA helper can help with this
Send form SSA-44 online through your Social Security account, by mail, or at an office. You can also ask by phone.
Social SecurityA helper can help with this
Send proof of the life event and your lower income. A newer tax return or a signed estimate can work.
Social SecurityA helper can help with this
If you think the tax facts or the decision are wrong, ask for a review with form SSA-561.
If you disagree with the letter itself
Social SecurityA helper can help with this Within 60 days of getting the letter.
Social Security mails a new decision. If your amount goes down, the change can go back to January of that year.
Social Security
You can ask for a hearing if you still disagree after the review.
Only if the review does not fix it
YouA helper can help with this Within 60 days of getting the review decision.
What only you can do
- Sign the form yourself, or ask by phone yourself.
- Send proof of the life event, like a retirement letter or death certificate. Also send proof of your lower income.
- How long it takes
- Social Security does not publish a set time. Ask as soon as your income drops.
- You are enrolled when
- You are done when a new letter shows the lower amount. Your Medicare charge then goes down.
- To keep it
- Social Security sets this amount again each year from newer tax records. If your income drops again after a life event, you can ask again.