Helping a parent with all of this

The short version

No single permission covers all of this. You need four separate authorizations. Four different organizations hold them. You may already have a healthcare power of attorney. By itself, it does not get you any of the four.

The good news: if your parent can still sign their name, all four are simple. Most can be done in an afternoon. The Medicare one takes longest. Do that one first.

Does a power of attorney let me call Medicare?

Not on its own, no. It sounds like exactly what a power of attorney should do. It is not.

A healthcare power of attorney is a state document about medical decisions. It says who decides about treatment. It is not an authorization on file with Medicare. The person answering at 1-800-MEDICARE cannot see it. They will not take your word for it.

But do not hire a lawyer over this. The power of attorney still has a use here. It lets you sign the Medicare form for your parent if they cannot sign it themselves. You attach a copy to the form. If your parent can still sign, you do not need it for this. They sign, and you are done in one step.

Three documents, three different jobs:

• Healthcare power of attorney — medical decisions. Does not give you administrative access.
• Durable or financial power of attorney — the paperwork you attach when signing forms for someone who cannot sign.
• Appointment of Representative — the only thing that lets you file and argue an appeal with a plan.

There is also a fourth. You may be your parent’s Social Security representative payee. That is separate again. It does not give you Medicare access either.

The four authorizations

1. To talk to Medicare itself

Form CMS-10106, the “1-800-MEDICARE Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information.” This form lets a Medicare representative talk with you. They can then discuss your parent’s Original Medicare claims, coverage and bills.

• Your parent can authorize you indefinitely or only for a set period. Choose indefinitely unless there is a reason not to.
• Submit it online through your parent’s secure Medicare.gov account. CMS itself says this is the faster route. Mailing it works but takes much longer. There is no published processing time either way.
• If your parent cannot sign, you sign as their personal representative. Tick that box. Attach the power of attorney.
• Download CMS-10106

Do this one first. It is the only one where you may be waiting on the mail.

2. To act for them with their plan

Your parent may have Medicare Advantage or a Part D drug plan. The plan is a separate organization from Medicare. It needs its own permission. For anything that is an appeal, the form is CMS-1696, Appointment of Representative.

• It is valid for one year from the date both of you sign it. But once it has been filed with an appeal, it stays valid for the whole of that appeal. Families often worry about this when the year ends mid-case. They do not need to.
• Many plans have their own version. Use the CMS-1696 anyway. It is accepted everywhere. A plan’s own form is not accepted by anyone else.
• If something is missing, the appointment can be fixed rather than restarted. The clock pauses while you fix it. But until it is fixed, you cannot act.
• Download CMS-1696

Some questions are routine and not an appeal. For those, most plans will let your parent add you as an authorized contact with a phone call. Do both.

3. At each doctor’s office

A HIPAA authorization. There is no national form and no form number. Every practice uses its own. It takes two minutes at the front desk.

It only covers that one practice. Signing one at the rheumatology office does nothing at the infusion center, the lab, or the hospital. Sign one at every place your parent gets care. Sign a new one if the practice changes its computer system or patient portal.

4. At the specialty pharmacy

Call the specialty pharmacy. Ask to be added as an authorized contact on the account. Each pharmacy has its own form. This one lets you handle refills and delivery scheduling. It also lets you handle prior authorization calls. Prior authorization means approval before you can get the drug. In practice, this is most of the phone time.

What to write down before you start calling

Every organization will ask for some of this. Hunting for it mid-call is where the afternoon goes. Use one sheet of paper. Keep it where you can both find it:

• Full legal name, date of birth, and address as it appears on the Medicare card
• Medicare number from the red, white and blue card
• Plan name and member ID for the Medicare Advantage or Part D plan, and the phone number on the back of that card
• Medigap (supplement policy) company and policy number, if there is one
• Medication name, dose, and how it is given — infusion, office injection, or self-injection at home. This one determines almost everything else.
• The date the current approval expires. Ask the office. It is rarely volunteered. It is the thing that causes a January crisis.
• Where the infusion happens, and whether it is billed as a hospital outpatient department or a doctor’s office
• The specialty pharmacy’s name and account number
• The name of the billing company on the statements. It is often a vendor no one recognizes. Knowing it saves an argument.

Keep a running log of every call. Write the date, who you spoke to, and any reference number they gave you. A reference number is the difference between “we have no record of that” and a solved problem.

What arrives in the mail, and what to do with it

A parent on a biologic gets a lot of official-looking envelopes in a year. Most are not bills. Two of them are urgent.

When a parent’s spouse dies

Several things change at once, in the worst possible month. Some of them have deadlines. This is the checklist.

• Their Medicare premium may go up sharply, through no action of their own. The higher-income surcharge (called IRMAA) uses income limits. The limits for a married couple are double those for one person. A survivor’s household income may barely change. Even so, they can jump several tiers just because the tax filing status changed. At the same time, they lose one Social Security check.
• There is a form for that. Death of a spouse is one of eight recognized life-changing events on form SSA-44. This form asks Social Security to use current income instead of the two-year-old tax return. You need a death certificate and an estimate of this year’s income. File it as soon as the income change is known. Do not wait for the bill. Download SSA-44
• They may now qualify for help they did not qualify for before. Extra Help and the Medicare Savings Programs are based on household size. A survivor is now a one-person household with one less income. Many people become eligible the month their spouse dies. They never apply, because they were told no as a couple years earlier. Re-check both programs.
• There is a window to change drug plans. Gaining or losing Extra Help or Medicaid opens a special enrollment period of three months.
• Medigap is the hard one. Losing a spouse is not on the federal list of times when a company must sell you a supplement policy. A survivor applying fresh can be asked health questions and turned down. Someone on a biologic is exactly who gets turned down. But there is an important exception. They may have had coverage through the deceased spouse’s retiree or employer plan. If that coverage is now ending, they do get a guaranteed right to buy. That right is time-limited. Act on it right away. Do not assume they are stuck. Washington State is more generous than federal law here. It allows switching supplement policies year-round without health questions.
• The Medigap premium may also rise. Many insurers give a household discount. The survivor loses it.

A free counselor will go through all of this with you. They are used to doing it for families, not just the patient. That is the call to make first.

Free help, for you as well as for them

• Washington: SHIBA — insurance.wa.gov/shiba or 1-800-562-6900
• Any other state: SHIP — shiphelp.org. Find the program in your parent’s state, not yours.
• Medicare — 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), any hour
• Social Security — 1-800-772-1213, for Extra Help and the SSA-44

Related

• Help paying for your medication — which program covers which kind of drug
• Why your medicine needs permission first
• Medicare and your medication — what it costs under each kind of Medicare

Where these figures come from

1. Form CMS-10106, “1-800-MEDICARE Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information,” revised March 2026, OMB No. 0938-0930. The form provides for indefinite or time-limited authorization, flags online submission through a secure Medicare.gov account as faster, and instructs a personal representative signing on someone’s behalf to attach documentation such as a power of attorney. CMS publishes no processing time for mailed forms.
2. Form CMS-1696, “Appointment of Representative,” OMB No. 0938-0950. Validity of one year from the date both parties sign; continuation for the duration of an appeal once filed; the option to use another conforming written instrument; and the process for curing a defective appointment — 42 CFR §405.910(d), (e).
3. HIPAA authorizations are governed by 45 CFR §164.508 and are specific to the entity that obtains them. There is no national form.
4. 2026 Part B standard premium of $202.90 per month, the annual deductible of $283, and the income-related monthly adjustment amount brackets, in which married-filing-jointly thresholds are double the individual thresholds below the top tier — CMS, “2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles,” November 14, 2025.
5. Death of a spouse is a qualifying life-changing event for an income-related adjustment reconsideration — Social Security Administration form SSA-44, revised December 2025, OMB No. 0960-0784; SSA Program Operations Manual System HI 01120.010.
6. Special enrollment period of three months following a gain, loss or change in Medicaid or low-income subsidy eligibility, and the monthly election available to subsidy-eligible individuals — 42 CFR §423.38(c)(9), (c)(4)(i).
7. Death of a spouse is not among the federal Medigap guaranteed issue rights; loss of an employer group health plan, including retiree coverage, that pays after Medicare is a guaranteed issue right — CMS, Choosing a Medigap Policy, Product No. 02110, revised March 2026. Washington State continuous open enrollment and community rating — RCW 48.66.045, RCW 48.66.130.
8. Medicare Advantage appeal deadline of 65 days from the date on the denial notice, being 60 days from receipt with receipt presumed five days after the notice date — 42 CFR §422.582(b), §422.584(b); CMS Parts C & D appeals guidance, §50.3.

About this page

Written and reviewed by Alison Bays, MD, MPH, board-certified rheumatologist. Figures are current for 2026 and were last checked in September 2026.

This is educational information, not advice — not medical, legal, financial or insurance advice, and not a substitute for talking to your parent’s doctor, their plan, or a benefits counselor. Nothing is sold here. No insurance is sold here, no plan is recommended, and neither this page nor its author is paid by any insurance company, plan, pharmaceutical manufacturer or broker. This page is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Medicare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or any government agency.

Found something wrong? Please tell us.