HSA & Medicare A appeal?

[samjuno]

At 67, I voluntarily decided to sign up for Medicare & drop my employer's group HDHP plan even if I'm still working & not drawing on my social security yet.

Social Security sent me my Medicare card which states Part A is retroactive to last June 2012. Since I've contributed to my HSA for 2012, I tried to get them not to make Part A retroactive, but no one at Social Security knew how to avoid it.

Now I'm forced to withdraw 7 months of HSA contributions before tax day or face a penalty. Since I was fully covered by my group HDHP all of last year, I see no reason why they should have made Medicare Part A retroactive. My HR dept.(large employer) has never heard of such a thing, but my local Social Security office claimed it's done often.

Has anyone appealed having Part A retroactive?
My HSA is not through my employer, so all my contributions were direct with after tax funds.
I hate missing out on those large tax refunds I got used to.

-sam

[ThePrune]

I have also never heard of a situation like yours.

You might have another problem that wasn't mentioned in your question. Typically the prescription drug coverage in a HDHP is not "creditable" from the perspective of Medicare Part D drug plans. You should be able to tell for your specific HDHP, because if it was "creditable", you would have received a letter assuring you of this fact.

If your HDHP prescription coverage was not "creditable", you will owe a premium penalty if you ever purchase a Medicare Part D plan in the future. The premium penalty is 1% per month from age 65 until you started a "creditable" prescrition drug plan. You can read more at What's the part D late enrollment penalty?.

[samjuno]

Yes, I already considered that & it's the main reason I finally enrolled in Medicare. Penalty was getting too large for Part D.

-sam