If your employer has 20 or more employees, you can usually wait until you stop working to sign up for Part B without a penalty. However,most people still sign up for "premium-free" Part A during their 65thbirthday window just to have that extra hospital coverage.
When you turn 65, you enter what’s called your Initial Enrollment Period. This is a seven-month window: the three months before you turn 65, your birthday month, and the three months after. If you are still working and have "creditable"insurance (insurance from a job that is considered as good as Medicare), you have a choice.
If your company is small (fewer than 20 people), Medicare usually becomes your primary insurance the day you turn 65, meaning you must sign up then to avoid big gaps in coverage and future late fees. If your company is large, you can delay Part B (the part that covers doctor visits and has a monthly premium) until you actually retire. Once you stop working or lose that job-based insurance, you get an eight-month Special Enrollment Period to sign up. Just be careful:if you have a Health Savings Account (HSA), you usually need to stop contributing to it six months before you sign up for Medicare to avoid tax headaches.
In Utah, many of our neighbors work well past 65,especially in our thriving tech and healthcare sectors along the Wasatch Front.If you work for one of Utah's large employers—like Intermountain Health, the University of Utah, or even the State—their benefits offices are very familiar with "coordinating" with Medicare. It is always a good idea to chat with your HR person. They can provide you with a specific form (the CMS-L564)when you finally do retire to prove you had coverage, which keeps the"Medicare police" from charging you late fees.
For you, this means flexibility. You don't have to rush into paying for Part B premiums (which are $202.90 a month for most people in 2026) if you already have great insurance at work. It gives you time to compare your current work plan against Medicare to see which one actually saves you more on your prescriptions and doctor visits.
Our Commitment to Reliable Medicare Information
At Resting Sycamore Advisors, we work to provide accurate, current, and trustworthy information about Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, and Special Needs Plans.
To do that, we use data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which is the official source for Medicare plan and enrollment information.
Our Medicare plan pages and comparison tools are powered by CMS datasets, including:
When possible, we link to the original CMS resources so you can review the source material directly.
We follow the CMS release schedule and update our website as new data becomes available.
We load new plan year Landscape and PBP files before the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (October 15 through December 7). We also monitor CMS.gov for updates or revisions and refresh our content when needed.
We update enrollment and performance data as CMS publishes revised files, which are typically released monthly or quarterly.
We routinely monitor CMS announcements for corrections, reissued files, or other changes and update our pages accordingly.
Each plan page includes a Last Accessed date so visitors can see when the source information was most recently reviewed.
CMS data can be difficult to read in raw form. To make it easier to use, we format and organize the data for clarity.
This includes:
All data values come from CMS. We do not change the underlying values beyond formatting, organization, and presentation.
We keep internal records of the CMS dataset versions used on our site.
If CMS issues corrected or revised files, we update our website to reflect the latest available version.
Please keep the following in mind:
For personalized Medicare assistance, please use these official resources: