New Medicare Cards Coming Soon
Posted on March 26, 2018
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is planning a fraud prevention initiative that will remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards to help combat identity theft, and safeguard taxpayer dollars. The new cards will use a unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI), to replace the Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) currently used on the Medicare card. CMS will begin mailing new cards in April 2018 and will meet the Congressional deadline for replacing all Medicare cards by April 2019.
• The cards will automatically be mailed to all 58 million current Medicare beneficiaries. You don’t need to do anything special to receive one.
• Your benefits won’t change with the new MBI number.
• Beware of anyone calling about the new card. You do not need to pay for a new card or give anyone your current Medicare card number.
• CMS will not call you to ask for your Social Security or Medicare ID number, because they already know it.
More information can be found at cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card.
Comments are currently closed.