Wow! 5 weeks to get a phone appointment with SSA for a Medicare application!

G

GaryPA

New Member
My sign up was not too bad. Applied for Medicare online on Dec. 11th, had my card by Jan. 6th. My wife is filing for Medicare on my work record. That can't be done online and must be by phone or a in person visit. Her phone interview is Feb. 24th! The SSA person said an in-person appointment would be even further out!

Funny thing is, we live 6 blocks from the local SSA office.

Unbelievable!


Gary
 

Wow... my husband waited on hold for 45 minutes and got me on his.
Our SS office allows for walk-ins. Can you try that, since you live so close?
 

No our local office does not allow walk-ins. The doors stay locked. It appears nearly all work remotely as I never see more than a couple cars in the lot since COVID. You can't even drop off paper work w/o calling ahead for approval..,,..pretty weird!

Anyways, she is covered by my work health plan for now, just wanted to pass that info along if anyone was getting ready to apply on their sposes record..plan ahead for sure!

Gary
 
GaryPA said:
No our local office does not allow walk-ins. The doors stay locked. It appears nearly all work remotely as I never see more than a couple cars in the lot since COVID. You can't even drop off paper work w/o calling ahead for approval..,,..pretty weird!

Anyways, she is covered by my work health plan for now, just wanted to pass that info along if anyone was getting ready to apply on their sposes record..plan ahead for sure!

Gary
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Have you checked with other locations in your area?
 
Twostep said:
You can do a walk-in on availability.
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That Lady in PA said:
Our SS office allows for walk-ins. Can you try that, since you live so close?
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The SSA doesn't take walk-ins anymore.

That's a new rule that went into effect on Dec 30th. If you walk into a SSA office and you don't have an appointment, you are given a phone number to call to set up an appointment.

The Calif DMV started doing that several years ago.

They're doing it to save money by lowering labor costs; letting go workers and not hiring new ones. Crazy thing is, the SSA's overhead costs are already the lowest of any business; every type, everywhere, and by a huge margin...30 to 1000 percent lower.
 
Oldeagle66 said:
They also require new sign in procedures to manage SSA accounts soon.
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I assume you mean on the website, and not the offices, yes?

In either June or July, start of the '24-'25 fiscal year, I got an email from the SSA advising me I'd have to create a new account because all the old ones were going to be scrapped....something to that effect.

I never used the account anyway, so I didn't bother.
 
Murrmurr said:
I assume you mean on the website, and not the offices, yes?

In either June or July, start of the '24-'25 fiscal year, I got an email from the SSA advising me I'd have to create a new account because all the old ones were going to be scrapped....something to that effect.

I never used the account anyway, so I didn't bother.
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Yes, I updated and it's already been useful.
 
Murrmurr said:
I assume you mean on the website, and not the offices, yes?

In either June or July, start of the '24-'25 fiscal year, I got an email from the SSA advising me I'd have to create a new account because all the old ones were going to be scrapped....something to that effect.

I never used the account anyway, so I didn't bother.
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It looks like paper notifications are not going to be the norm anymore. Had SO not checked it when he applied for his SS I would not have known about a hefty increase on IRRMA and an appeal dead line.
 
Twostep said:
It looks like paper notifications are not going to be the norm anymore. Had SO not checked it when he applied for his SS I would not have known about a hefty increase on IRRMA and an appeal dead line.
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I don't want to have an account, though. Especially not after that major SS hack last year. You can go to the SSA website and get all the latest news without having to sign into an account. Plus, I subscribed to 2 YouTube channels that post daily about SS stuff. There are several channels like theirs.
 
Murrmurr said:
I don't want to have an account, though. Especially not after that major SS hack last year. You can go to the SSA website and get all the latest news without having to sign into an account. Plus, I subscribed to 2 YouTube channels that post daily about SS stuff. There are several channels like theirs.
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My personal specifics are neither on the website nor on UTube.
 
Murrmurr said:
I assume you mean on the website, and not the offices, yes?

In either June or July, start of the '24-'25 fiscal year, I got an email from the SSA advising me I'd have to create a new account because all the old ones were going to be scrapped....something to that effect.

I never used the account anyway, so I didn't bother.
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The mymedicare.gov account has been usefull for me. I understand you can see billing and claims in process. I'll be looking at that over the coming years. The ssa.gov account will be usefull for things like updating direct deposit. I prefer the online access for most everything.
 
GaryPA said:
My sign up was not too bad. Applied for Medicare online on Dec. 11th, had my card by Jan. 6th. My wife is filing for Medicare on my work record. That can't be done online and must be by phone or a in person visit. Her phone interview is Feb. 24th! The SSA person said an in-person appointment would be even further out!
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Forbes posted a clip on YouTube of a Congressional hearing (or maybe just an inquiry) going on right now regarding the long wait times for in-person appointments with the SSA, and one senator lost his mind over the extreme on-hold time he experienced when he called the SSA himself.

He was on hold for an hour and 20-some minutes. He was furious. The committee has questions.

I hope they fix the issue.

I think I mentioned earlier, the SSA has the absolute lowest overhead costs compared to all business and public service models. Labor, admin costs, supplies and technology, and even building construction...all that adds up to about a 4% overhead. The Congressional Committee contends that, not only does the SSA have no need to cut it's labor force, it can afford to hire additional labor (to better serve the public), and still keep overhead costs enviably low.
 
Murrmurr said:
Forbes posted a clip on YouTube of a Congressional hearing (or maybe just an inquiry) going on right now regarding the long wait times for in-person appointments with the SSA, and one senator lost his mind over the extreme on-hold time he experienced when he called the SSA himself.

He was on hold for an hour and 20-some minutes. He was furious. The committee has questions.

I hope they fix the issue.

I think I mentioned earlier, the SSA has the absolute lowest overhead costs compared to all business and public service models. Labor, admin costs, supplies and technology, and even building construction...all that adds up to about a 4% overhead. The Congressional Committee contends that, not only does the SSA have no need to cut it's labor force, it can afford to hire additional labor (to better serve the public), and still keep overhead costs enviably low.
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The hold loop gives you the expected wait time up front. Generally around 100-120 minutes.
 
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