Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Millions of people with Medicare will receive new, more secure Medicare cards in the mail in 2018. The new cards replace Social Security Number-based Medicare numbers with a new unique, personalized Medicare Number, known as the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier. Each person with Medicare will have his or her own number. The cards will be mailed automatically, free of charge, and there will be no changes to Medicare users’ current benefits.
The new Medicare cards no longer contain a person’s Social Security number, but rather a unique, randomly-assigned Medicare number that protects people’s identity, helps reduce fraud and offers better safeguards of important health and financial information.
Removing Social Security Numbers from Medicare cards is one of the ways the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is helping to protect the identities of people with Medicare. The unique Medicare Number not only increases protections from fraud for people with Medicare, it also makes it harder for criminals to use Social Security Numbers to falsely bill Medicare for care services and benefits that were never performed.
CMS is mailing the new Medicare cards in geographic waves. This means people with Medicare may not get their new card at the same time as their friends or neighbors. People with Medicare and their caregivers can visit medicare.gov/newcard to find out when cards will be mailed to their areas. They can also sign up for email notifications about the card-mailing and check the card-mailing status in their states. As soon as people receive their new Medicare cards, they should safely and securely destroy their old Medicare cards and start using their new cards right away.
Make note of the 10 Things to Remember About New Medicare Cards to help ensure a smooth transition to your new card.
(article courtesy of Family Features and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)