New Medicare Cards Are Coming!
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have begin mailing new Medicare cards without Social Security Numbers (SSNs) on them to help fight identity fraud. These new cards will help better protect identity’s of Medicare cardholders. Those who will be first time Medicare recipients, turning 65 in 2018, will be getting their Medicare cards mailed first.
Check out the Mailing Strategy to see when your card is being mailed. You can even sign up for alerts to be notified when your card is on the way. Here are some of the common questions people may have.
Will the new Medicare cards better protect from fraud?
The main purpose for these new Medicare cards is to protect the cardholder’s identity from fraud. Mailings will be mailed by the counties regions. CMS are taking extra steps to fight for those with Medicare cards will not fall victim to identify fraud.
What information will be on these new Medicare cards?
Although, the SSNs will be removed from the new Medicare cards, there will be a new identification sequence. Therefore, the new identification is a random sequence of 11 numbers and uppercase letters with no special characters.
What to do with the old Medicare cards?
Destroy the old Medicare card or take it to a physician office and they will destroy it. Since the old cards still have the SSNs printed, it is advised to discard the old card immediately. Once the new card has been received, it will already be active and ready to use. Beware, there may be scammers that might call to get some personal information, hang up! Report them at 1-800-MEDICARE.
More Questions?
Visit Medicare.gov or call Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE to find out more.
[1] https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2017/new-design-medicare-id-cards.html