03 June, 2017
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) now used on the Medicare card.
Medicare is a big, complex bureaucracy, and replacing the cards is expensive: Officials estimated in 2011 that replacing the cards would cost between $812 million and $845 million. That's the upshot of a May 30 announcement from CMS (www.cms.gov) that the agency is on schedule to meet a congressional deadline for removing Social Security numbers from all Medicare beneficiary ID cards by April 2019. Issuance of the new MBI will not change the benefits a Medicare beneficiary receives.
The provision to remove Social Security numbers from the cards, and instead pay providers through a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) was included in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act passed in 2015. New cards may be used right away. Beware of scammers pretending to be with Medicare and demanding that you disclose your personal information or lose your benefits, Nofziger cautions.
The government is taking these steps in response to the growing cases of identity theft that increasingly target people 65 and older. The new identifier will be 11 characters long and will include letters and numbers.
In the press release, CMS Administrator Seema Verma, M.P.H., said the removal of Social Security numbers was all about combating fraud and identity theft, and protecting American taxpayer dollars.
She also pointed out that with the new system, CMS will be able to terminate a Medicare ID number when needed and issue a new one, which wasn't possible when using HICNs. "Incidents among seniors increased to 2.6 million from 2.1 million between 2012 and 2014, according to the most current statistics from the Department of Justice". While you may need to bring the original card to your first appointment with a new doctor, for many purposes you could show healthcare providers a picture of your card taken on your password-protected smartphone, Siciliano says. Also a scam. New Medicare cards will be mailed out to you automatically.
