You may have seen commercials or marketing materials advertising a Medicare Advantage “giveback” or “premium reduction” that will reduce the amount you have to pay for Medicare Part B. Here’s what you need to know about how this works:
Most Medicare beneficiaries qualify for premium-free Medicare Part A, based on their work history or their spouse’s work history. But Medicare Part B has a monthly premium, which is $202.90/month for most beneficiaries in 2026.
What is a Medicare Part B giveback?
If you choose to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, you pay the premium for Medicare Part B plus the premium for the Medicare Advantage plan. As of 2026, the average additional Medicare Advantage premium is about $14/month. But more than three-quarters of Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2025 pay no premiums for their Medicare Advantage coverage, meaning they only pay the Part B premium.
However, some plans go a step further, offering a “giveback” that pays a portion of their enrollees’ Medicare Part B premiums. This benefit, also referred to as a Medicare Part B premium reduction, has been available since 2003. And although most Medicare Advantage plans do not offer a giveback premium reduction, the benefit has become more popular and widespread in recent years (although this trend has reversed a bit for 2026), and is increasingly marketed as a stand-out benefit by Medicare Advantage plans that do offer it.
How common are plans with a Medicare Part B giveback?
For 2026, about a quarter of all Medicare Advantage plans offer a Part B premium reduction benefit. 1,369 Medicare Advantage plans are offering a Part B giveback for 2026, out of approximately 5,600 total plans.
In 2025, there were 1,556 Medicare Advantage plans offering a giveback benefit, out of 5,633 total plans. So the number of plans offering givebacks has dropped, although there was also a slight reduction in the total number of available plans for 2026.
How does a Medicare Part B giveback premium reduction work?
The specifics of the premium reduction rules are outlined in federal regulations that have been applicable since Medicare+Choice plans were rebranded as Medicare Advantage in 2003.
Medicare Advantage plans receive payments from the federal government (which cost the government more per person than it spends on Original Medicare). But the plan can opt to receive a reduced payment and use the payment reduction to offset some (or all) of the Medicare Part B premium for its enrollees.
How large are the Medicare Part B givebacks?
For plans that take this option, the Part B premium reduction can be as little as 10 cents, or as much as the full Part B premium, which is $202.90/month in 2026.
The Medicare Part B premium reduction has to be provided uniformly to a plan’s enrollees, so everyone in the plan gets the same premium reduction benefit.
Of the plans that offered a giveback benefit in 2025, the premium reduction amounts varied from less than $10/month to more than $100/month.
However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) noted in 2023 that it was fairly rare to see premium reductions that were equal to or close to the full amount of the Medicare Part B premium.
How do you receive the Medicare Part B giveback?
For most Medicare beneficiaries, the cost of Medicare Part B is deducted from their Social Security checks. Beneficiaries who don’t receive Social Security retirement benefits are invoiced directly for their Medicare Part B premiums.
The Part B premium reduction can be used by people in either scenario: If you’re receiving Social Security retirement benefits and you enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan with a giveback benefit, the amount that’s deducted from your Social Security check to cover the cost of Medicare Part B will be lower. And if you pay your premiums directly to Medicare, you’ll be invoiced a smaller amount.
Where is the Medicare Part B giveback offered?
As noted above, about a quarter of all 2026 Medicare Advantage plans offer a Part B premium reduction benefit. This is a reduction from the number of plans that offered this benefit in 2025, but only 19% of Medicare Advantage plans offered a Part B premium reduction in 2024.
But three-quarters of all Medicare Advantage plans are not offering this benefit for 2026, so it’s likely not available on the majority of plans in any given area.
Assuming there are Medicare Advantage plans in your area that offer a giveback benefit, it’s important to evaluate all of the available plans based on how they’ll serve your overall needs. If a plan has a $50 giveback but will end up costing you an extra $60 every month at the pharmacy, or doesn’t include your doctors in its network, it’s probably not going to be your best option.
How is the marketing of Part B premium reductions regulated?
CMS looked into the marketing around giveback benefits, and addressed it in rulemaking that was finalized in mid-2023. CMS noted that the marketing of giveback programs that offered equal to or near the full amount of the Part B premium was a “misleading tactic that is more likely designed to attract a beneficiary’s attention so that the beneficiary will call the number and then be subject to additional marketing and potentially switched to a plan that is not well suited to meet the beneficiary’s health care needs.” Specifically:
- Although the giveback benefits were marketed nationwide as being “up to $144/month” in 2021 (when the standard Part B premium was $148.50/month) plans with a giveback benefit of at least $140/month were only available in some areas of California, Florida, and Puerto Rico, and not anywhere in the country as advertised. In 60% of states, the largest giveback amount available in 2022 was $99/month or less.
- In some cases, beneficiaries would call to get more information based on the marketing of a giveback program amounting to all or nearly all of the Medicare Part B premium, and find out that the benefit was much smaller than advertised, in the range of $1 to $25 per month.
- There did appear to be some level of bait-and-switch involved. (CMS described it as “a misleading tactic to entice beneficiaries to call the number and potentially enroll or switch them into another plan, regardless of whether the plan offers any Part B premium reduction or a reduction of the scope that is advertised.”) CMS listened to recorded phone calls in which a beneficiary called an advertiser to ask how they could get $144/month added to their Social Security check (based on marketing materials the beneficiary saw), but the agent then offered a plan with no premium reduction or a much smaller amount than the advertisement. CMS states: “Because of the initial call, which was based on unavailable benefits, the beneficiary may end up enrolling in a plan that does not best meet the health care needs of the beneficiary. In this situation, the beneficiary may have benefited by staying in their existing plan, and may even have stayed enrolled in their existing plan, if not for the advertisement urging the beneficiary to call to “get the money they deserve.“
To address these issues, CMS finalized a rule in 2023 (added as section (b)(8) in CFR § 422.2263) clarifying that Medicare Advantage and Part D insurers are not allowed to “advertise benefits that are not available to beneficiaries in the service area(s) where the marketing appears, unless the advertisement is in local media that serves the service area(s) where the benefits are available and reaching beneficiaries who reside in other service areas is unavoidable.”
If you are seeing advertisements for Part B premium reduction benefits, be sure you analyze the available plans based on the overall coverage they provide. The plan(s) offering giveback benefits may or may not be the option that works best for your particular needs.
How can I find Medicare Advantage plans with a Part B giveback
When you’re comparing plans using the Medicare Plan Finder tool, you can click on “plan details” to see more information about each plan.
An overview page will appear, and the section at the top is all about premiums. The bottom line in that section is labeled “Part B premium reduction” and it will either say “not offered” or it will show a premium reduction amount if the plan offers that benefit.
You can also call the Medicare Advantage insurers in your state to ask them directly about whether they offer this benefit, and if so, how much the premium reduction will be.
What factors – other than premium – should I consider when choosing a Medicare Advantage plan?
The total monthly premium is just one aspect of your coverage, and there are numerous other features that you’re going to want to take into consideration when you’re making a plan selection. For example:
- How will the plan cover your specific prescription drugs, and what pharmacies are in-network? (Most, but not all, Medicare Advantage plans include integrated Part D prescription coverage.)
- Which doctors and hospitals are in the plan’s provider network, and does the plan provide any non-emergency out-of-network coverage?
- What are the total out-of-pocket costs that you’re likely to have under the plan? (Keeping in mind that the out-of-pocket maximum listed for each plan doesn’t include prescription costs, which are counted separately. In 2026, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs are capped at $2,100 on all Part D plans, including Medicare Advantage plans with integrated drug coverage.)
- What additional benefits does the plan provide, and how much value will you get from them? This can include coverage for things like over-the-counter drugs, in-home support, dental services (plus extras like endodontics and periodontics), hearing aids, gym memberships, and more.
- What star rating does the plan have? (Just like giveback benefits, this shouldn’t be a starting point for picking a plan, but rather a means of narrowing down the options once you’ve selected a plan that provides the overall benefits that fit your needs.)
So is a Medicare Advantage plan with a Part B premium reduction a good choice for you? Maybe. But it will depend on the other features of the plan, and it’s important to base your decision on how the plan will serve you overall, rather than just the heavily marketed features.
Louise Norris is an individual health insurance broker who has been writing about health insurance and health reform since 2006. She has written hundreds of opinions and educational pieces about the Affordable Care Act and Medicare for healthinsurance.org and medicareresources.org.
