TN 3 (10-23)

HI 00630.090 Supplementary Medical Insurance Premium Collection in DIO - General

Any individual who has enrolled and is determined to be entitled to coverage under Part B of the Medicare program and who will not have the required monthly premium amount deducted from social security, railroad retirement, or civil service benefits, or paid by a State government or private organization under an approved group payment arrangement, or pay their premiums to the Railroad Retirement Board (RR beneficiaries only), will pay such amount directly to the Administration.

Generally, through the use and application of EDP processes, those individuals who are required to pay their premiums by direct remittance will be sent a punchcard type premium notice (SSA-1545, 1546, 1547, or 1548) which will reflect the months covered by the bill, the amount of premiums due, and the due date for payment. The initial and repetitive premium notices are prepared on central computer facility equipment in OCRO. Although the premium billing operations for direct-pay individuals are performed by OCRO, the individual premium payments are directed to the servicing processing centers, ODO, and DIO for collection and preparation of input data.

As a means of directing premium payments (remittances) to the proper servicing office (our cases, DIO) each punchcard premium notice is accompanied by a preaddressed envelope. Each premium notice, in turn, contains a statement instructing the recipient to use the enclosed envelope to mail their remittance and premium notice.

To insure that the majority of premium notices are not included with other processing center mail and as a means of facilitating bulk delivery of remittances to the processing centers, arrangements have been made to have such mail directed to a special post office box address in each city where a processing center is located. These are sent directly to the Premium Collection Units in each processing center.

Since the volume of premium remittances received in DIO is small, a special post office box has not been designated. However, the special envelopes used can be distinguished from the regular self-addressed return envelopes by their small size and by the number 18, which appears in the lower left corner. Also, because of DIO's low volume, SMI remittances will be processed by the Deposit Clerk in the Reconsideration Section. The deposit procedures to be used will closely parallel the procedures used to process regular remittances received.