Medicare prices Part B premiums on a two-year income delay, so retirees can owe up to $527.50 monthly based on salaries they no longer earn. Form SSA-44 lets Social Security recalculate IRMAA after qualifying events like retirement or a spouse's death, but voluntary moves like Roth conversions don't qualify. When a spouse dies, the survivor's filing status shifts to single, halving the income thresholds and potentially adding $385 monthly in combined Part B and Part D surcharges.
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Advisor.com's free matching tool pairs you with vetted fiduciaries from major national firms, all in under three minutes. See who you match with today. A 66-year-old who walked out of a $220,000 job last summer opens her first 2026 Medicare statement and finds a Part B bill of $527.50 a month instead of the standard $202.90.
She has been retired for eight months. Her income this year will land closer to $80,000. Medicare has not caught up.
The premium is priced off her 2024 tax return, when she was still earning a full salary. This is IRMAA, the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount. It touches roughly 8% of Medicare beneficiaries.
If your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) sits comfortably below $109,000 single or $218,000 joint, none of this touches you and you can close the tab. Everyone else needs to know that the government prices Medicare on a two-year delay, and SSA-44 is the form designed to correct that mismatch after certain life events. MAGI for IRMAA is adjusted gross income (AGI) from Form 1040 line 11 plus tax-exempt interest from line 2a.
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