Mom's Medicare was cancelled due to our moving. What do we do?

If Mom has no assets, and limited income, she may qualify for assistance with her Medicare Part B premiums, and/or Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. First call 1-800-MEDICARE or go to Social Security, and ask if she qualifies for "extra help". If you do not have it, you will need a POA. No one will talk to you unless she is with you and gives permission, or you have the POA. Besides getting financial help, when someone is on LIS (low income subsidy) for Medicare Part D, and/or help with Part B, they are protected by having an ongoing "Special Election Period" when they can change their Medicare plan/Part D coverage outside of the Annual or Open Election Periods.

A Medicare supplemental plan does not cover prescription drugs. To get drug coverage with a supplemental plan one must enroll in a Medicare Part D plan alongside the supplement.

If your mother lost Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, it is unusual that she was able to get it back without waiting until the Annual Election Period (AEP) in October for January 1, 2015. I am not clear if your move triggered something or if your mom's move did. Rules for Medicare/Part D plans allow a person to be out of the area for up to a year as a temporary move. The timing sounds like Medicare thinks she was out of the plan service area. When you contacted the plan and they verified her as in the area, they were able to put her back on. Typically any gap in coverage means you cannot come back until AEP. Be sure to confirm her coverage now with the plan - do not assume all is well, even if you get an ID card. When you call Medicare to ask about "extra help", be sure they have her address correct. If there is something incorrect with her address and it is not fixed, you could find her coverage terminated again. Medicare (CMS) will tell a health plan or Part D plan to terminate coverage if a participants address/zip code does not match the service area of the plan. I have seen coverage ended because people change their address to go on vacation, or to visit a relative, or to a trusted child, without making it clear to Medicare that it is a temporary change or "in care of" situation. Changes to Medicare can be made the first of the month following the date of the request at the earliest. Retroactive adjustments are rare and require an appeal to CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Read everything you are sent by the health plan, the Rx plan, or Medicare as soon as you get it, as it is often time sensitive. If she was dropped for a questionable address, the plan had to give advance written notice at least 3 times prior to ending the coverage, and last at 30 days prior to the termination date. If the plan was told or Medicare was told directly that the retiree was residing out of area, they must end the coverage the first of the next month.

There are a lot of rules, but they are designed to protect the beneficiary first. They are also designed to administer benefits for 61 million people. It is nearly impossible to run a program with so many if they are allowed to change all the time, retro changes are made, or exceptions are made.
Best of luck.

If indeed your Mother had no interruption in her medication and was in fact getting her medication since the 2/10/12 move date, and without paying the monthly premium,I do think you should count yourself and your mother very lucky! Now it seems you will only have to pay for your mother's medication needs for less than one month until she is reinstated on May 1. This hopefully should be manageable. So that nothing gets out of whack ever again in the future you can arrange to have the monthly premium deducted from your Mother's Social Security check..

AARP uses United Health Care and of course there are premiums to pay. Of course they didn't know where to find her, and after a long period of no payment and no response, they cancel. But you still have Medicare.

It was the AARP supplemental insurance to medicRe and they tell me because she moved and didn't properly notify them they cancelled her

Medicare does not cancel because you move. Perhaps you have Medicaid? Perhaps you needed to notify your caseworker? Pay for two weeks meds out of pocket. A hard lesson to learn, sorry.