About Cobalt Medicare
Cobalt Medicare is a free reference for Medicare's income-related surcharge, IRMAA. Every figure on the site is traced to a primary source: CMS announcements, the Federal Register, SSA's operating manual (POMS), IRS forms and publications, and BLS inflation data. The site is run by PerfSpot LLC, a small US software company, and edited by Brent Chudoba. It is not connected with the government and it does not give advice.
What this site is
IRMAA determinations confuse people for a structural reason: the official numbers live in documents that are hard to read and, in practice, hard for search and AI tools to reach. This site maintains the same numbers in plain tables and plain sentences, adds a calculator that shows where you stand and how close you are to the next bracket, and explains the appeal process in ordinary language. Everything is free. There are no accounts, no email walls, and no lead forms.
Tools we also build
IRMAA is one piece of a larger money picture, so the sibling most people here reach for is Cobalt Prosper: it covers the taxes, retirement accounts, and other decisions that shape the income IRMAA is charged on. These are small, independent tools that happen to share builders, not one company with one login. A couple you might find useful:
- Cobalt Prosper Plain-English calculators and source-backed guides for the money decisions that trip people up — taxes, retirement, student loans — all free, no paywalls.
- SpyglassBeacon A day counter that quietly tracks your time across states and countries — and warns you before you accidentally become a tax resident or overstay a visa.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every bracket figure, premium, threshold, and date on this site traces to a primary source before it is published:
- CMS fact sheets and the Federal Register notices announcing each year's premiums and income-related amounts
- The Social Security Administration's Program Operations Manual System (POMS) for MAGI definitions, life-changing events, and appeal procedures
- The United States Code and Code of Federal Regulations for the statutory formulas
- IRS forms and publications for tax-line definitions
- Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data for our bracket projections
Pages cite their sources in place. Projections are computed from the statutory formula, labeled as projections, and shown with their uncertainty rather than rounded into false confidence. Numbers we cannot verify against a primary source do not ship.
How often is the site updated?
On a calendar, not on inspiration. Bracket projections are recomputed when BLS publishes each monthly CPI figure. Final bracket tables are published within 24 hours of CMS's annual announcement, which lands in the fall. Every page shows its last-updated date, and the projections page keeps a visible log of what changed and when.
Corrections
If you find a number that looks wrong, tell us. A confirmed numeric error gets corrected within 24 hours, and material corrections are noted on the affected page. In a subject where one dollar can change a household's premiums by thousands, we would rather fix an error fast than defend it.
Who runs it
Cobalt Medicare is a product of PerfSpot LLC, which builds and operates small software products and web references. The site is edited by Brent Chudoba. Founder of PerfSpot LLC, the company that operates this site. Maintains this reference; every figure on the site is traced to CMS, SSA, IRS, Federal Register, and BLS primary sources, and projections are labeled as projections. You can find Brent Chudoba on LinkedIn.
Independence and limits
This site is not connected with or endorsed by the United States government, the Social Security Administration, CMS, or the federal Medicare program. Nothing here is tax, legal, investment, or insurance advice; the site explains rules and computes published figures, and decisions about your own money belong with you and, where it matters, a qualified professional. The site is supported by advertising, and advertisers have no influence over content. See the privacy policy and terms.
Part of a family of independent tools
Cobalt Medicare is one of a set of small, independently useful tools built by the same people. No shared login, no bundle, just relatives worth a look.