2016 Medicare Part B Deductible
For 2016, the Medicare Part B Deductible is $166 (Deductible) and $121.80 (Standard premium).
Effective 2016-01-01Source: 2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)Verified 2026-08-29
Who it applies to
All Medicare Part B beneficiaries
What changed this year, and why
For 2016, the annual Medicare Part B deductible is $166, and the standard monthly Part B premium is $121.80.
Common questions
- What is the Medicare Part B deductible for 2016?
- The annual Medicare Part B deductible for 2016 is $166. This is the amount a beneficiary must pay out of pocket for covered Part B services before Medicare begins to pay its share.
- What is the standard Medicare Part B premium for 2016?
- The standard monthly Part B premium for 2016 is $121.80. This rate applies to beneficiaries who are not protected by the Social Security 'hold harmless' provision, including new enrollees, those not collecting Social Security benefits, dual-eligible beneficiaries whose premiums are paid by Medicaid, and those who pay an income-related premium.
What the Part B deductible applies to
Medicare Part B is the portion of Original Medicare that pays for doctor visits and outpatient hospital services. Before Part B begins to pay its share of these costs, the beneficiary must first pay the annual Part B deductible. In 2016 that deductible is $166. Once the $166 has been met, Part B starts covering its share of physician and outpatient hospital charges for the rest of the calendar year. The deductible resets every January 1, so it is an annual amount rather than a per-visit or per-admission charge. Note that the Part B deductible is separate from the standard monthly premium, which is $121.80 for beneficiaries who are not held harmless from the 2016 premium increase.
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the 2016 premiums and deductibles for the Medicare inpatient hospital (Part A) and physician and outpatient hospital services (Part B) programs.
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
Part A has its own separate deductible
Medicare Part A is the hospital insurance component of Original Medicare. It covers inpatient hospital stays, care in a skilled nursing facility, and some home health care services. Part A is fundamentally different from Part B, which covers physician visits and outpatient hospital services. Each part has its own deductible, and the two deductibles operate independently. The annual Part B deductible in 2016 is $166 and applies only to Part B services; it does not count toward any Part A cost-sharing obligation. Similarly, the Part B standard monthly premium of $121.80 is separate from any Part A premium. Beneficiaries should be aware that satisfying the Part B deductible does not reduce what they owe when admitted to a hospital under Part A, because the two programs cover entirely different types of care and have separate cost-sharing structures.
Medicare Part A covers inpatient hospital, skilled nursing facility, and some home health care services.
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
Why most people pay no Part A premium
The vast majority of Medicare enrollees - about 99 percent - do not owe a monthly premium for Part A hospital coverage. The reason is a work-history requirement: anyone who has completed at least 40 quarters of Medicare-covered employment, meaning roughly a decade of paying Medicare taxes, qualifies for premium-free Part A. This rule means that most people who have worked a standard career pay nothing extra each month for hospital insurance once they become eligible for Medicare. Only the small share of beneficiaries who fall short of 40 quarters must pay a monthly Part A premium. Even those beneficiaries, however, pay their Part A premium separately from the Part B premium, which has a standard monthly amount of $121.80 in 2016, and separately from the annual Part B deductible of $166.
About 99 percent of Medicare beneficiaries do not pay a Part A premium since they have at least 40 quarters of Medicare-covered employment.
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
The Part A deductible is per benefit period, not per year
Unlike the Part B deductible, which resets once per calendar year, the Part A inpatient hospital deductible is tied to benefit periods rather than to a fixed annual cycle. A benefit period begins the day a beneficiary is admitted to a hospital and ends after 60 consecutive days without any inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility care. The Part A deductible applies to the first 60 days of Medicare-covered inpatient hospital care within each such benefit period. If a beneficiary is discharged, stays out of the hospital for at least 60 days, and is then readmitted, a new benefit period begins and the deductible must be satisfied again. This structure means that a person who has multiple separate hospital admissions in a single year could pay the Part A deductible more than once, which is an important difference from the annual Part B deductible of $166.
The Part A deductible covers beneficiaries' share of costs for the first 60 days of Medicare-covered inpatient hospital care in a benefit period.
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
Married, living together, filing separately: the income surcharge jumps
Most Medicare beneficiaries who are not subject to the income-related monthly adjustment amount pay the standard Part B premium of $121.80 in 2016. However, a special and less favorable set of income thresholds applies to beneficiaries who are married and lived with their spouse at any time during the taxable year but choose to file a separate federal income tax return. For these individuals, the surcharge begins at a much lower income level than it does for other filing statuses. Even modest income can trigger the additional income-related amount on top of the standard premium. This rule exists because Congress designed the married-filing-separately category to prevent couples from avoiding the IRMAA surcharge by filing separate returns while still living together. The consequence is that married beneficiaries who lived with their spouse and file separately face the steepest income-related premium increases at the lowest income thresholds of any filing status.
Premiums for beneficiaries who are married and lived with their spouse at any time during the taxable year, but file a separate return, are as follows:
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
2016 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles Announced (CMS)
- Deductible
CMS also announced that the annual deductible for all Part B beneficiaries will be $166.00 in 2016.
Beneficiaries not subject to the “hold harmless” provision will pay $121.80, as calculated reflecting the provisions of the Bipartisan Budget Act signed into law by President Obama last week.