What You Must Know About the New Medicare Card

The card will come with a randomly assigned Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) produced up of 11 letters and numbers and no social protection number like on the current card.

Some differences in the new playing cards incorporate:

• Uppercase letters and numbers
• The letters B, I, L, O, S and Z will not be utilised to stay away from baffling letters with figures
• Positions 2, 5, 8, and 9 will often be letters
• No embedded logic
• Every single beneficiary will be assigned a distinctive identifier

All 60 million or so Medicare recipients will finally obtain the card in the mail. The mail outs commenced April of 2018 and will go on for a year.

What Do You or the Medicare Recipient Have to have to Know?

• You do not have to do everything to get the card. It will be mechanically mailed to you.
• Make confident Medicare has your current tackle so your card is delivered on time.
• The card may be in an envelope that resembles junk mail.
• As soon as you obtain the card, damage your old card and start using your new card suitable absent.
• Do not get anxious if your mates have the new card and you you should not. It will just take some time to mail all of the cards.
• The new card is paper. You could want to laminate it.
• Deliver the new card to your future health care go to.
• If you fail to remember to carry your new card, your health care service provider need to be in a position to search up your Medicare identification on the web.

If you have a Medicare Edge coverage, you must continue to preserve and use this plan’s card. Nonetheless, have each playing cards on hand when you visit your medical doctor.

Beware of Ripoffs (as suggested by the American Association of Retired People)

• Frauds relating to the new card are currently surfacing. Some Medicare recipients report getting calls from scamsters who explain to them that they ought to spend for the new card and then talk to them for their examining account and Medicare card numbers. Do not give out possibly range!!

“Anyone declaring they are heading to demand you for a card is a scammer,” says Paul Stephens, director of coverage and advocacy with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. “In the scenario of CMS, they will never need to have you to tell them what your Medicare card amount is mainly because they presently know it.”

Identification theft is growing between those people 65 and more mature. The Office of Justice has cited a determine of a lot more than 2.6 million situations of senior identity theft occurring in latest several years.

Constantly continue with extreme caution ahead of releasing any personally figuring out details!