Medicare online account gets deactivated upon death notification. Anyone else experience this?

Mallory - yep and it can get quite maddening. CMS should continue to send out the snail-mail billing statements for about 2 - 4 months to whatever address they were going to. The CMS ones are the listing of service provided with the vendor and then the info on payment with % details. I got them for 3 mos after mom died.

Now are you doing probate? If so, then once you get Letters Testamentary issued (and get like a dz at least of these at the initial request and they should be cheap too) you can mail a letter to the vendors a request for billing with the LT that shows you as executrix and request all billing and invoices sent to you as a debt of mom's estate. Or you / your attorney file a Notice To Creditors and then only deal with those who file a claim to probate court to be paid; most won't btw.

I will suggest this, you want to wait before you start paying any bills. There well could be bills sent that are not accurate. I've gotten a few bottom-feeder letters that appear to be debts but are not…what they are "service contracts" which imply a debt is due to start or renew the service…they are somewhat smallish like $ 85 for pest control or $ 150 for AC/Heat contract and it's just for the contract with no actual work done, pretty good scam. Your mom still had her home right? If so you will likely get oodles of letters for "as is" cash offers on the house (a couple might come to the house too so tell the neighbors to be on the alert). One of these sent over a yard maintenance guy to do an estimate too, I parked behind his truck, told him I had called the police and had a concealed carry license (fibs but so worth saying) so he was trapped & couldn't get out till he told me the backstory…..which was he does an full scale landscaping estimate and then the "as is" buyer deducts his estimate from whatever "offer" he told you over the phone. Scam.
Really once they die and word is out, all sorts of low-lifes hit on the estate. Be on your guard. Between the obit notice and SS info being easily available, it's beyond easy to get info on your mom.

I never go on-line. Just wait till my supplemental report comes in. Shows what Medicare paid and what they did. Usually ends up matching. Never pay a doctor bill until I get his bill.

Malloryg8r: Since mom just passed in June, it is quite likely that all the bills haven't come through for payment yet. Bothersome, I know!

Yes when my husband died, the funeral home notified Medicare. I was furious. I lost his ss and his navy benefit. I also lost my home. Now I have come back financially but, you really have to be ready to adjust once your loved ones income no longer is available and there are bills to pay. Funerals cost SO MUCH. We even used a very inexpensive casket at my husband wishes. My Partner is being cremated. (I don't believe in cremation, but it is so much less money) My partner bought his plan years ago.

I thought I left this message. If so, sorry if not...
Funeral homes are under obligation to report a death to SS and in turn Medicare to prevent fraud. When a spouse dies, the lowest of the two SS payments is dropped. In my case, if DH dies before me my $800 will drop and I will get his 1500. If I die before him, he loses my SS. Miltary benefits? My SIL, husband in Air Force 20yrs, told me she is not entitled to his pension. Her explanation, he was in the service, not her. I guess that would include any benefits he had?

Oh Mallory - Medicare has its rules and it's up to us to live with them. Mom passed in May and I know what you're going through. All the providers have their own unique little billing systems in their own hieroglyphics, but if Medicare has been billed - the invoices should indicate the Medicare payment (Adjustment). Some providers start spitting out bills to the family at the same time they bill MC.
I had gotten to the point where I waited for the 60 day reminder bills before even considering them for review.

Try not to stress over it. Unfortunately, MC only sends out paper EOB's on a quarterly basis - so you'll have a wait. I particularly loved the one that came last Christmas; 30 pages to sort thru and match up with bills.

My problem has been that MC doesn't always forward the bill to the secondary insurance like they're supposed to. Then I get a bill for the balance. I have to send it back with a copy of the death cert along with a copy of her secondary insurance info and a note scribbled on the invoice asking them to bill the secondary. And just when you think you've got it handled, a provider changes billing services and they start spitting out old bills because the cvs file in the system didn't carry over the data correctly - It's a mess. Hang in there.

Yes, I had problem with billing, actually went to collections and it was their error. Told the collector I paid what the statement said. She told me to read my medicare statement. I did, the provider posted payment wrong. TG I worked collections and figured out what the did.

Yeah, I am in for a LONG wait. I just got another bill from a provider, Medicare had paid their bit, but nothing else appeared after that. I tried to call the provider---they have no phone number!!! just a place to mail your payment.
So I googled them, got a Contact Me form (still NO PHONE) for their corporate office and filled that out. Then I waited over the weekend for a reply....today I do get a reply, "Thank you for Contacting us...." and a few hours later, a Real Person emails me, I need more details. Still No Phone. I email all the details and ask for a phone, please. a few hours more, and they email me back, you have to call so & so at this number, and give all your details all over again.
What ever happened to the days when we could just call a number, and they could pull up the account on the screen, and tell us a straight answer, even if we were on hold for 10 mins, that is a lot quicker than this having to google them, fill out a Contact Me form, wade thru several emails before a Real Person replies, and then get shifted over to another office altogether?
Why not just put a phone number on the bill!!! It's because of all the budget cuts, they don't want anyone to bother them with phone calls. Just crank out paper bills and hope nobody has a question.

No phone#? It's because they know they're messed up and don't want people calling them. This has gotten so bad around the country that the 3 major credit reporting agencies recently accepted a new policy whereby they won't let medical billings affect credit ratings! What does THAT tell you? :) Last year (I've been handling mom's EOB's during the caregiving years) one of the non-cooperative providers sent a bill to Collections.

I was a little amused that there was no verbage on the Notice indicating a Right to Contest. But I simply enclosed a copy of the previous correspondence to the provider along with a notation that I was Contesting the amount owed, within 30 days as stipulated by law, because the provider did not bill the secondary insurance.

It's sad how complicated things have become. I actually picked up a few Certified Mail stickers from the post office so I could have them at the ready.
When someone has to sign for something - it gets their attention.

Well I found 3 bills of my mom's where they either had not billed Medicare, or they hadn't billed the supplemental insurance, and its really so annoying that they mess up the bills! ! I bet there are lots of seniors out there who don't even notice the bills weren't processed correctly and maybe they just pay it, when they didn't have to.