Some of you approaching or beyond age 65 may receive an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) Determination letter from Medicare in October or November informing you that your Medicare premiums will increase next year. You may start paying a surcharge added to your monthly Medicare Part B premiums based on your annual income from two years ago.
This is because the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses your income tax information from two years ago to determine if you owe an IRMAA in addition to your monthly premium for Medicare Part B, medical insurance, and Part D, prescription drug coverage.
The IRMAA concept aims to help fund the Medicare program by requiring higher-income individuals to contribute more. IRMAA operates on a tiered system, with different income thresholds corresponding to various premium brackets. These brackets determine how much extra or a surcharge you’ll pay on top of your regular Medicare premium.
Medicare determines the 2025 IRMAA brackets during the fourth quarter of 2024. Your 2023 filing status and income determine your 2025 bracket.
Medicare determines the 2025 IRMAA charge in the fourth quarter of 2024. Your IRMAA determination is based on your 2023 filing status and income. Medicare uses the data point obtained from the IRS to determine the 2025 IRMAA charge.
Here is the 2025 IRMAA table:
2025 Medicare Part B IRMAA
| Individual Tax Filers | Married Filing Jointly | Monthly Premium |
| Up to $106,000 | Up to $212,000 | $185.00 |
| $106,001 – $133,000 | $212,001 – $266,000 | $259.00 |
| $133,001 – $167,000 | $266,001 – $334,000 | $370.00 |
| $167,001 – $200,000 | $334,001 – $400,000 | $480.90 |
| $200,001 – $500,000 | $400,001 – $750,000 | $591.90 |
| Greater than $500,001 | Greater than $750,001 | $628.90 |
Life-changing events can significantly decrease a person’s future income, affecting the premium they will pay for Medicare Part B and Part D. Social Security and Medicare recognize the following life-changing events for IRMAA:
- marriage
- divorce or annulment
- death of a spouse
- work stoppage
- work reduction
- loss of income-producing property (beyond the beneficiary’s control)
- loss or reduction of pension income (plan failure or termination, or scheduled cessation)
- employer settlement payment (as a result of an employer or former employer’s closure, bankruptcy, or reorganization)
Retirement is a life-changing event because it can reduce your future household income. It comes under the concept of work stoppage.
If you are in a lower bracket for 2025 than your 2023 income bracket indicates, you must complete and submit an SSA-44 form to share your situation with Medicare. See Social Security’s Request to lower an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA).
The SSA-44 is not an appeal. It is a request for a new IRMAA determination. The word “appeal” does not appear anywhere on an SSA-44. If the SSA-44 were denied, an appeal would be the next step. There is a different form for that contingency.
I offer three videos to help you understand and complete the SSA-44 correctly. I think you should print out the SSA-44 form before viewing the videos to have it ready as a draft document.
You should begin with How to fill out the SSA 44 form to apply for a reduction in IRMAA (youtube.com). It takes less than 7 minutes and provides an overview of the SSA-44. A big takeaway is that you should submit your completed SSA-44 form through certified mail.
While you can deposit the form with documentation at your local Social Security office in a designated drop-off box without an appointment, selecting the mail option is better because it proves you did so. (I dropped mine off at the local Social Security office and saved postage.)
How to complete form SSA-44 for the Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) (youtube.com) is for the tax year 2022, but its content is still beneficial. The presenter is a former employee of the Social Security Administration, and the video is a little longer than 17 minutes.
I liked how he covered the various life-changing events, including retirement, which can trigger why you may want to file an SSA-44.
Here are some highlights:
- how your letter is a proposed decision for the upcoming year
- speed bumps, different people you will encounter filling out the form
- what evidence you have to submit
- why each person in a marriage must submit a form
- explanations of evidence for each life-changing event
- the difference between the SSA-44 and the SSA-561 forms
- scrolling the form throughout the video to pivot to the discussion
- almost 90 comments from viewers were answered by the presenter
Forrest Baumhover is a Certified Financial Planner and tax practitioner. His website, teachmepersonalfinance.com, includes How Does a Life Changing Event Impact My IRMAA? which discusses IRMAA with extensive hotlinks for details.
He has invested tremendous time reviewing IRMAA. You will appreciate his scholarship, mainly his answers to Question 10, “What is SSA-44, and how does it affect my IRMAA?” and Question 11, “I received my IRMAA determination letter, but then I retired. Can I ask Social Security to change my IRMAA?” The answer to Question 11 includes a step-by-step 13-minute video to walk you through the form.
The three videos I offered in this article take less than an hour to view. Watching them in the sequence presented in this article would be a good idea. To be sure, there is some content redundancy among the videos. That is a good sign you are paying attention and learning! Redundancy is sometimes a good thing. You want to submit the correct documentation and avoid facing rejection.
After viewing the videos, you have enough situational awareness to correctly understand and complete the eight-page SSA-44 form.
And now for the good news. Only the first three pages must be submitted. The other five pages consist of instructions. An hour’s worth of videos will get you through the ordeal.
