I'm 50yrs old and became disabled in 2002 and have been on early disability retirement for (23yrs). Paraplegic and wheelchair bound on Aetna insurance(23yrs) and Medicare Part A.
On April 23rd of this year. I received a letter stating that I am Medicare Eligible due to disability. Since I'm Medicare Eligible I cannot stay in the current Aetna plan. As of 1/1/09 to the date of the letter 4/23/09 all claims will be forwarded to Medicare and in the future contact them for any issues. Currently I do have w/Aetna a Supplelemtal Plan for Rx (Medco) / Vision / Dental.
I then contacted Medicare to apply for Part B and they told me that the enrollment deadline for Part B was 3/31/10 and the next enrollment will be 1/1/11 and will become effective 7/1/11.
Aetna tells me that they cannot accept me back into the plan until Medicare takes over and Medicare tells me "Oh well, you will have to wait until the next enrollment date". Called ExxonMobil back and they tell me to ask Medicare for part C. Back to Medicare and they tell me I need Plan B first.
So my problem is that the letter was dated 4/23/10 and the cutoff was 3/31/10.(?? ). Now I have to wait one full year in order to regain my Health Insurance plan. Plus I was scheduled to see my 3 Dr's. For visits/surgery and now I cannot due that. This will cause me to have severe medical issues in the upcoming months.

Does anyone have any advice or have been in a similar situation.
Thanks Steve

Generally once your eligible for Medicare, you have a certin amount of time to sign up. It's essentially a life event and not part of open enrollment.

Generally you have to notify the employer that you received your medicare card and provide a copy. They then will enroll you in a Medicare suppliment plan.

What I think happened is someone dropped the ball and didn't make you eligible when you were supposed to be which would have been shortly after the 6mo short-term disability and the 2-yr long term disability was up.

Thus this probably should have happened much earlier and that's probably why your having issues.

Some idea as to what happens
Unable to work in May, year 0
Sick time+vacation
Feb, yr 1; retro short, apply for long
Aug; retro long
Long for 2 yrs, must apply for social security disability
Retro ss disability
Meanwhile coverage gets dropped in Nov
Must apply for medicare
Offered Cobra
Get medicare card in February
Applied for LTD pension
Received retroactive pension to previous Nov
With regular health care for Dec & Jan
Suppliment policy starting in February
Yep, talk about a mess.

There were lots of bumps including terminated retroactively.