Part D IRMAA
Part D IRMAA is an income-based surcharge on Medicare drug coverage, charged in addition to the premium your drug plan sets. In 2026 it runs from $14.50 to $91.00 per month across five tiers, and it starts once 2024 MAGI passes $109,000 for a single filer or $218,000 for married filing jointly. Medicare sets the amount by income tier and Medicare collects it; the surcharge never appears on your drug plan's bill.
What are the Part D IRMAA amounts for 2026?
The drug-side surcharge sits on the very brackets that set Part B IRMAA, five levels above the zero tier, so a single determination from your 2024 tax return drives both surcharges. MAGI for this purpose is adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest, two lines of Form 1040 walked through in how to calculate MAGI for IRMAA.
| MAGI, single filer | MAGI, married filing jointly | Monthly Part D IRMAA |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ $109,000 | ≤ $218,000 | $0.00 |
| > $109,000 – ≤ $137,000 | > $218,000 – ≤ $274,000 | $14.50 |
| > $137,000 – ≤ $171,000 | > $274,000 – ≤ $342,000 | $37.50 |
| > $171,000 – ≤ $205,000 | > $342,000 – ≤ $410,000 | $60.40 |
| > $205,000 – < $500,000 | > $410,000 – < $750,000 | $83.30 |
| ≥ $500,000 | ≥ $750,000 | $91.00 |
Source: CMS, 2026 fact sheet (announced November 14, 2025).
In sentences: a single filer whose 2024 MAGI is above $109,000 and at or below $137,000 pays $14.50 a month in 2026 alongside the plan's own premium. At $500,000 or more ($750,000 or more filing jointly), the surcharge reaches its $91.00 maximum. Married filing separately collapses the middle of the schedule for anyone who lived with their spouse at any time in 2024: MAGI above $109,000 and below $391,000 carries the $83.30 charge, and $391,000 or more carries $91.00. The Part B side of the same tiers lives in the full 2026 IRMAA brackets for Part B and Part D.
The drug-side surcharge has existed since 2011, when the Affordable Care Act extended income-related premium adjustments from Part B to Part D.
How does Part D IRMAA stack on your plan premium?
Your monthly drug coverage cost is two separate charges collected by two different parties. The plan premium is set by the plan you chose and paid to that plan; it varies plan to plan, and this page does not estimate it. The surcharge is fixed by income tier, identical in every plan, and it goes to Medicare.
Take two single filers, each with 2024 MAGI of $150,000. Both land in the second surcharge tier. One picked a bare-bones drug plan; the other picked a plan costing several times more each month. Their plan bills differ, but their Part D IRMAA is the same $37.50 a month, and Medicare collects that amount from each of them directly. The plan bill and the surcharge never share a statement.
Whatever the plan decides to charge, tier 2 adds $37.50, tier 3 adds $60.40, and the top tier adds $91.00. Over a full year, the tier 2 surcharge alone comes to $450.00 per person ($37.50 times 12). We do not print an average plan premium next to that figure because no single true number exists; premiums are set plan by plan, while the surcharge is knowable from one table.
How is Part D IRMAA paid? Is it deducted from Social Security?
If you receive Social Security or OPM benefit payments, yes: the surcharge is withheld from that payment first. Otherwise CMS bills you monthly. CMS states it plainly in its 2026 premiums fact sheet: "regardless of how a beneficiary pays their Part D premium, the Part D income-related monthly adjustment amounts are deducted from Social Security benefit checks or paid directly to Medicare."
Social Security's operations manual, POMS HI 01101.001, gives the collection order for what it calls IRMAA-D. The amount is "withheld from the Social Security or OPM benefit payment", language that covers federal retirees on an Office of Personnel Management annuity as well as Social Security recipients. If withholding cannot cover it, the same section says: "If the benefit payment is not enough to cover the entire monthly IRMAA-D, CMS bills the beneficiary monthly for the IRMAA-D." The billing cadence POMS specifies is monthly.
Paying your plan its premium in full changes none of this. However the plan premium gets paid, and whoever pays it, Medicare still collects the adjustment through the channels the CMS quote describes. Part D IRMAA never appears on a drug plan invoice.
Do you pay Part D IRMAA if your drug coverage is through an employer plan?
The surcharge attaches to enrollment, not to who writes the premium check. POMS HI 01101.001 applies IRMAA-D to beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare prescription drug plan, with or without Part B, or in "Medicare Part B and a Medicare Advantage Plan with prescription drug coverage (MA-PD)". No enrollment in a Medicare drug plan, no Part D IRMAA.
An employer or anyone else covering the premium does not change the outcome either; the CMS language above begins with "regardless of how a beneficiary pays". Whether a particular retiree drug plan is itself a Medicare drug plan is a question for that plan's benefits administrator, and it is the one fact this page cannot settle for you.
Does Part D IRMAA apply inside Medicare Advantage?
Yes. Drug coverage inside a Medicare Advantage plan is MA-PD coverage, which appears on the POMS list above, so the surcharge applies at the same tiers and Medicare receives it, not the plan. Every Medicare Advantage enrollee also keeps paying the Part B premium plus any Part B IRMAA. The charge is assessed individually as well: when both spouses have Medicare drug coverage, the household owes it twice, with the couple's joint MAGI setting each spouse's tier.
What were the 2025 Part D IRMAA amounts?
The 2025 schedule ran on 2023 tax returns and lower income thresholds, with surcharges from $13.70 to $85.80 per month.
| MAGI, single filer | MAGI, married filing jointly | Monthly Part D IRMAA |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ $106,000 | ≤ $212,000 | $0.00 |
| > $106,000 – ≤ $133,000 | > $212,000 – ≤ $266,000 | $13.70 |
| > $133,000 – ≤ $167,000 | > $266,000 – ≤ $334,000 | $35.30 |
| > $167,000 – ≤ $200,000 | > $334,000 – ≤ $400,000 | $57.00 |
| > $200,000 – < $500,000 | > $400,000 – < $750,000 | $78.60 |
| ≥ $500,000 | ≥ $750,000 | $85.80 |
Source: CMS, 2025 fact sheet (announced November 8, 2024).
For married filing separately in 2025, MAGI above $106,000 and below $394,000 meant $78.60, and $394,000 or more meant $85.80. These figures settle questions about 2025 bills only. A 2026 premium notice uses the 2026 table at the top of this page and a different tax year, so checking a current bill against the 2025 rows misassigns your income.
What will Part D IRMAA be in 2027?
No 2027 dollar amount exists yet, and none can be computed in advance. The Part D surcharge dollars come from a separate mechanism tied to the annual bids drug plans submit to CMS, not from the inflation formula that moves the bracket thresholds, so they wait for CMS's announcement in fall 2026. What is knowable now is the income side: Part B and Part D share their MAGI tiers, and the projected 2027 IRMAA thresholds page follows that arithmetic month by month until the official figures land. This page carries no 2027 dollar figures on purpose.
What if you only have Part B immunosuppressive drug coverage?
A narrow Medicare benefit carries its own income-adjusted premium schedule that is easy to mistake for Part D. It is not Part D. The benefit, Part B-ID, is Part B coverage of immunosuppressive drugs only. The 2026 Federal Register notice describes it this way: "Beginning in 2023, certain Medicare enrollees who are 36 months post kidney transplant, and therefore no longer eligible for full Medicare coverage, can elect to continue Part B coverage of immunosuppressive drugs by paying a premium." The benefit was created by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and enrollees must lack certain other insurance coverage to elect it.
The 2026 base premium for this coverage is $121.60 per month, and the income adjustments use the same MAGI thresholds as every table above. The standard premium for full Part B coverage is a different, higher figure, covered on the 2026 Medicare Part B premium page.
| MAGI, single filer | MAGI, married filing jointly | Monthly IRMAA | Total monthly premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤ $109,000 | ≤ $218,000 | $0.00 | $121.60 |
| > $109,000 – ≤ $137,000 | > $218,000 – ≤ $274,000 | $81.10 | $202.70 |
| > $137,000 – ≤ $171,000 | > $274,000 – ≤ $342,000 | $202.70 | $324.30 |
| > $171,000 – ≤ $205,000 | > $342,000 – ≤ $410,000 | $324.30 | $445.90 |
| > $205,000 – < $500,000 | > $410,000 – < $750,000 | $445.90 | $567.50 |
| ≥ $500,000 | ≥ $750,000 | $486.50 | $608.10 |
Source: CMS, 2026 fact sheet (announced November 14, 2025) and 90 FR 52063 (November 19, 2025).
In the top tier, the immunosuppressive-only premium reaches $608.10 a month in 2026. Married filing separately follows the compressed pattern here too: 2024 MAGI above $109,000 and below $391,000 means a $445.90 adjustment ($567.50 total), and $391,000 or more means $486.50 ($608.10 total).
| MAGI, single filer | MAGI, married filing jointly | Monthly IRMAA | Total monthly premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤ $106,000 | ≤ $212,000 | $0.00 | $110.40 |
| > $106,000 – ≤ $133,000 | > $212,000 – ≤ $266,000 | $73.60 | $184.00 |
| > $133,000 – ≤ $167,000 | > $266,000 – ≤ $334,000 | $184.10 | $294.50 |
| > $167,000 – ≤ $200,000 | > $334,000 – ≤ $400,000 | $294.50 | $404.90 |
| > $200,000 – < $500,000 | > $400,000 – < $750,000 | $404.90 | $515.30 |
| ≥ $500,000 | ≥ $750,000 | $441.70 | $552.10 |
Source: CMS, 2025 fact sheet (announced November 8, 2024). Based on 2023 MAGI.
The 2025 base premium was $110.40, and the first surcharge tier brought the total to $184.00 a month. These two tables exist almost nowhere outside the Federal Register itself, which is why they are published here in full.
Part D IRMAA questions people ask
Can Part D IRMAA be reduced or refunded?
Yes, through the same two routes as Part B IRMAA, and because one tier determination sets both surcharges, a successful request lowers both. After a qualifying life event such as stopping work, the Form SSA-44 life-event process asks SSA to use your lower current-year income. If the tax data behind the determination is wrong, the IRMAA correction and appeal paths fix the record.
How is Part D IRMAA calculated?
The income tiers follow the same statutory MAGI brackets as Part B. The dollar amounts are not indexed the way those brackets are; CMS sets them each year through a separate Part D mechanism and publishes them with the annual premium announcement.
To see both halves of your own 2026 bill at once, the IRMAA calculator returns your Part B and Part D surcharges together from a single MAGI entry.