How to Apply for Medicare: A Step-by-Step Guide

How to apply for Medicare, and when

In short: You apply for Medicare through Social Security, online, by phone, or in person, not through Medicare.gov. Do it in the seven-month window around your parent's 65th birthday, or a penalty can follow.

If you're doing this for a parent, the application itself is the small part. Social Security asks a short set of questions and, for most people, takes minutes. What eats an afternoon is figuring out when to do it, because the answer depends on things like whether your mother is still working, whether she's already drawing Social Security, and whether she's done this before and let the window close.

Applying is also the easy part next to what comes after it. Once your parent is enrolled, someone still has to book the first appointments, confirm the referral actually went through, and chase the equipment a doctor ordered. If that's the part piling up, a navigator can take that follow-through off your list. Navigate Care explains how that works and what it may cost on its what you will pay page.

When to apply: the windows that matter

Medicare runs on three enrollment windows, and which one applies to your parent decides almost everything else.

Most people use the Initial Enrollment Period. It runs seven months: three months before the month your parent turns 65, their birthday month, and three months after (Medicare.gov). Sign up before the birthday month and coverage starts the month your parent turns 65. Sign up during the birthday month or any of the three months after, and coverage starts the following month (Medicare.gov). Earlier beats later, even inside the same seven months.

Miss that, and the next stop is the General Enrollment Period, which AARP describes as running January 1 through March 31 every year. Coverage starts the month after your parent signs up, not right away (Medicare.gov). This is usually where the late penalty catches up with people, which the next section gets into.

There's a third door, the Special Enrollment Period, for anyone covered by a job past 65, their own or a spouse's. It opens the day that coverage ends and runs eight months, penalty-free, as long as the coverage was real, current employment. Retiree coverage and COBRA don't count (Medicare.gov).

The three windows, side by side

Source: Medicare.gov, when can I sign up for Medicare, Medicare.gov, when does coverage start, AARP

One more thing worth knowing before any of this: if your parent is already getting Social Security retirement benefits at least four months before turning 65, none of the above applies. Medicare signs them up automatically, no form, and mails a welcome package with the Medicare card (Medicare.gov). Check the mail before assuming nothing has happened.

Three ways to apply for Parts A and B

There's no single form that has to be mailed to a particular office. Medicare.gov lists three routes into Social Security, and your parent can pick whichever one suits them.

Medicare.gov itself calls applying online the easiest and fastest route, and lists it first (Medicare.gov). Your parent creates a my Social Security account and applies through it. No appointment, no hold music.

If your parent would rather talk to a person, Social Security takes calls at 1-800-772-1213, TTY 1-800-325-0778 (Medicare.gov). Expect a wait, especially near the start of a month.

A local Social Security office still takes walk-ins and appointments too, and anyone who worked on the railroad has their own line, the Railroad Retirement Board, at 1-877-772-5772 (Medicare.gov). Call ahead. Most offices want an appointment booked now rather than a walk-in.

None of the three costs anything. There is no application fee for Medicare, ever, regardless of which part your parent is signing up for or how they apply.

What you need before you start

Social Security will tell you exactly what it needs once the application is open, and it's worth starting even if a document isn't in hand yet: missing pieces can usually follow. Two forms come up often enough to know by name before you call.

If your parent is applying through the Special Enrollment Period because a job's health plan just ended, the employer fills out form CMS-L564, which proves that coverage existed and when it stopped (Medicare.gov). Ask HR for it before the last day of work if you can, since chasing it afterward is slower.

If your parent missed a window for a reason outside their control, a documented family emergency, bad information from an employer, something like that, there's a form for an exceptional circumstance: CMS-10797 (Medicare.gov). It isn't automatic. Social Security decides whether the circumstance qualifies.

Beyond those two situations, have your parent's Social Security number and the basic facts about any current job-based coverage ready, and let the application itself ask for anything else. Guessing what to prepare wastes more time than the form does.

If your parent is still working

This is where most of the confusion actually lives. A parent working past 65 with real coverage through that job, or a spouse's job, usually doesn't need to rush into Part B at 65. The Special Enrollment Period above is built for exactly this, eight months once the job ends, no penalty.

Part A is usually worth taking anyway, even while still working. It's premium-free for most people and doesn't interfere with most employer plans. Part B is the one to actually think about, because paying its premium on top of a job's plan can mean paying twice for overlapping coverage. A quick call to the benefits office, or to a SHIP counsellor, settles that faster than guessing.

After Parts A and B: Advantage, Part D and Medigap

Signing up for Parts A and B is the step this post is about, but it isn't the end of the decision. Three more choices usually follow, and each runs on its own clock.

Medicare Advantage (Part C) and Part D prescription drug plans both open up once Parts A and B start, and our guide to Medicare parts explained walks through how Original Medicare and Advantage actually differ.

Medigap, a supplemental policy that helps with Original Medicare's deductibles and coinsurance, runs on a window of its own: six months, starting the first day of the month your parent is 65 or older and has Part B. Inside that window, an insurer can't turn your parent down or charge more for a pre-existing condition (Medicare.gov). Miss it, and in most states there's no federal guarantee an insurer has to sell a policy at all. Our Medicare Part B guide goes through what Part B actually costs in 2026, which is usually the number that decides whether Medigap is worth it.

What happens after you apply

Social Security processes the application and will reach out if something's missing. About two weeks after your parent signs up, a welcome package arrives with the Medicare card and the Medicare Number on it (Medicare.gov). That number is what your parent will need to create a Medicare.gov account, join a plan, or buy a Medigap policy, so it's worth keeping somewhere you can both find it.

If your parent is on Medicaid too, or thinks they might qualify for help paying the Part B premium, that's a separate step through the state, not something this application covers. Our piece on Medicaid vs Medicare explains how the two programmes split, and where dual eligibility fits.

Where a navigator fits in once you're enrolled

A navigator doesn't apply for Medicare on your parent's behalf, and doesn't replace a SHIP counsellor on a plan question. SHIP counselling is free, and it's the right first call for choosing between Original Medicare and Advantage, or deciding whether Medigap makes sense.

What a navigator does is the work that starts after the card arrives: booking the first appointments, confirming referrals, tracking what happens after a hospital stay. Medicare doesn't automatically cover that kind of navigation. It depends on a qualifying condition or need and a provider visit, the same as any other Part B service, and the cost is usually $0 for patients with supplemental coverage, confirmed before anything starts. If you're not sure whether that's the right kind of help or something else is, our compare page lays out the categories.

Here is how Navigate Care can help once your parent is enrolled. We match your parent with one dedicated navigator, who coordinates appointments, referrals, medical equipment, benefits and support at home, by phone and video, in any US state. The navigator follows through after the doctor recommends something, so you aren't the one making every call. A navigator does not give medical advice or treat anything. Your parent's doctor still makes those decisions. And we confirm your cost before you start.