A $90 Medicare Rebate Is Landing for About 20 Million Seniors, and About 40 Million Will Not Get a Check

About 20 million people on traditional Medicare are receiving a one-time $90 payment this week, and about 40 million other Part B enrollees are not, under a Trump administration rebate drawn from the Medicare Improvement Fund.

President Trump said Friday the money would go to some participants in Part B, which covers doctor visits, outpatient care and preventive screenings. Part B has 62.9 million enrollees. About one-third qualify. The eligible group is people in traditional Medicare who do not pay an income-related premium and do not get help with the premium from Medicaid. Medicare Advantage enrollees are out. So are people who live outside the United States and people who already receive premium assistance.

Most of the payments are direct deposits from the Social Security Administration on or around Oct. 8. Some beneficiaries reported the deposit, or a pending one, on Tuesday. Others will get a paper check from the Treasury later in October. The check is to carry the line "Medicare Improvement Fund Payment; $90 Payment to Offset October Premium." People who want to know if they qualify can call 1-800-MEDICARE. Payment status can be checked with Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 starting Oct. 15.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the payment puts "healthcare dollars back where they belong – in the hands of our Medicare beneficiaries." The fund was created by Congress to support original Medicare fee-for-service. Using it for a flat rebate is a choice about that account, not a change in the Part B premium.

The premium is the reason the $90 does not close the gap. Part B premiums rose by more than $200 a year in 2026 and are projected to rise by nearly $80 in 2027, the Medicare trustees' latest report said. Ninety dollars is less than half of this year's increase and a fraction of two years of them.

"People who are paying the income-related premium have higher incomes to begin with, so the thinking is that they may be better able to absorb higher costs and wouldn't benefit as much from the $90 payment as people with lower incomes," Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, told CBS News. Medicare Advantage is not traditional Medicare, she said, which is the likely reason those enrollees are excluded.

Advocates have warned that a paper check in October can sit in a pile of insurer mail. Open enrollment is the season when Medicare plans send the most paper. A deposit that posts on Oct. 8 is visible in an account. A check with a long memo line is not, if it is opened as junk.

KFF polling has found health-care costs are a top financial worry across ages, not only among people on Medicare. The rebate does not reach people under 65, people on Advantage, or the higher-income Part B enrollees who pay the income-related surcharge. It reaches the original-Medicare group that pays the standard premium without help. CMS put that group above 20 million. The other 40 million are the ones asking why a Social Security deposit arrived for a neighbor and not for them. The answer is the plan type and the income screen, not a missed filing.