8 Medicare Enrollment Mistakes That Cost Georgia Retirees All Year

Some retirees carry a lifetime Medicare surcharge that runs close to $487 a year.

One overlooked deadline is all it takes.

These are the Medicare enrollment mistakes that keep costing Georgia retirees all year, year after year.

Note: This is general information, not financial, insurance, or medical advice. Enrollment windows, deadlines and penalty amounts are subject to change, so confirm your options with GeorgiaCares (1-866-552-4464) or 1-800-MEDICARE.

1. Letting Your Enrollment Window Close

Retirees get one clean shot at signing up for Medicare without a penalty attached: The seven-month Initial Enrollment Period built around their 65th birthday.

That window opens three months before the birthday month, includes the birthday month, and closes three months after it.

A retiree turning 65 in Rome runs the same seven-month clock as one turning 65 in Tifton.

Medicare doesn’t customize the calendar by county.

Let it close with no other qualifying coverage picking up the slack, and Medicare adds 10% to the Part B premium for every full 12-month period a retiree could have signed up and didn’t.

That penalty never expires.

It rides on the monthly bill for as long as a retiree carries Part B, outlasting the reason they waited in the first place.

2. Trusting Your Small Employer’s Plan

A small Georgia employer’s health plan can look like it buys a retiree working past 65 the same grace period a big company’s does.

It doesn’t.

The Special Enrollment Period that lets someone delay Part B without a penalty only applies once an employer has 20 employees or more.

Work for a Statesboro auto shop or a Valdosta diner with a dozen people on staff, and Medicare expects that employee enrolled in Part B at 65, full stop.

Skip it anyway, and the same lifetime penalty from the section above starts building the moment the seven-month window closes.

A small payroll doesn’t buy an exception.

3. Assuming COBRA Buys You Time

A Georgia retiree leaving a longtime job can elect continuation coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), which keeps an employer’s group health plan active for a stretch.

Many assume that buys them room before signing up for Medicare.

That’s not how it works.

Federal guidance says COBRA doesn’t meet the definition of coverage based on current employment, so it never qualifies anyone for the Special Enrollment Period that shields late enrollees from a penalty.

A DeKalb County retiree who elects COBRA instead of signing up for Part B can watch that window close without ever getting a warning.

The penalty clock runs whether COBRA is active or not.

4. Skipping Part D Without Pills

For many retirees near Athens, an empty medicine cabinet is reason enough to skip Part D.

That decision has a bill.

Go 63 days or more without creditable drug coverage after the Initial Enrollment Period closes, and Medicare tacks on a penalty equal to 1% of the national base beneficiary premium for every month that passed uncovered.

The national base beneficiary premium sits at $38.99 in 2026, so even a short gap adds extra dollars, rounded to the nearest ten cents, onto the monthly Part D bill at a pharmacy counter from Athens to Augusta.

That penalty lasts as long as the retiree carries Part D coverage, even after switching plans.

5. Missing Your Medigap Window

Waiting for a doctor’s bill to arrive is the wrong time for a Georgia retiree on Original Medicare to start shopping for a Medicare Supplement, or Medigap, policy.

That wait can cost them.

The six months after turning 65 and enrolling in Part B are the only stretch when Medicare guarantees an insurer will sell a Medigap policy at its best rate, no health questions asked.

Wait past it, and an insurer in Atlanta or Savannah can run medical underwriting, charge more for the exact same plan, or turn a retiree down outright over a health condition.

Once that window shuts, it doesn’t reopen.

6. Never Comparing Advantage Plans

A Georgia retiree’s first Medicare Advantage plan often becomes their last pick, whether or not it still fits the following year.

Big mistake.

Every plan resets its drug list, its network, and its out-of-pocket maximum each January, so a Piedmont Healthcare regular can lose in-network access or watch a maintenance drug jump a pricing tier with little warning beyond a mailed insert.

The fall Open Enrollment period runs Oct. 15 through Dec. 7 every year, the one chance to switch plans before January’s changes take effect.

Skip that window, and a Georgia retiree can spend the whole next year paying out-of-network prices for a doctor the old plan covered.

7. Fumbling the Employer Verification Form

Form CMS-L564, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Request for Employment Information, stands between many Georgia retirees and a penalty-free sign-up, even after every other Special Enrollment Period rule checks out.

Medicare requires an employer’s signature on that form, verifying exactly when group coverage started and ended, filed with Social Security inside the same eight-month window that opens the month coverage ends.

Paperwork isn’t optional.

An Augusta retiree whose old employer is slow to sign, or who assumes a final pay stub will do instead, can burn weeks of that runway chasing paperwork instead of a deadline.

Miss the window that way, and Georgia’s retiree falls back to the General Enrollment Period, which runs January through March.

Coverage now starts the month after enrolling instead of the following July.

Every month spent uncovered while the paperwork stalled still counts toward the standard Part B penalty.

A slow signature can cost as much as a skipped decision.

8. Still Funding Your HSA

Working past 65 in Georgia rarely feels like a reason to stop funding a Health Savings Account (HSA).

Many retirees keep contributing anyway, right up until the day they finally file for Medicare.

That timing can backfire.

Part A coverage can be backdated up to six months once someone applies, reaching back no further than the month they turned 65.

Any HSA contribution made during that backdated stretch counts as an excess contribution, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) taxes it at 6% for every year the money sits in the account.

A Cobb County retiree who kept funding the account through summer, then files for Medicare in the fall with coverage backdated to spring, can owe that penalty on months of contributions made before Medicare ever started paying a claim.

The fix is stopping HSA contributions before the backdating window opens, not after.

Georgia’s Retirement Wave, by the Numbers

Georgia is aging fast.

About 16.7% of the state’s population is now 65 or older, according to the Census Bureau.