New Medicare Cards Coming to Help Prevent ID Theft & Scamming

Health Wellness

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How many of you have a Medicare card?

I do. My card gives my name, Social Security Number, sex, what coverage I have and the date that coverage took effect and then a place for a signature.

If you aren’t concerned with that information getting out, you should be. True, it’s easy to find someone’s name and you can often surmise their sex by the name (but that is getting more difficult these days). Someone knowing what Medicare coverage you have and when it went into effect is no big deal either.

But what happens if you lose your wallet or purse or they are stolen? Your Medicare card has your Social Security Number on it. That’s a problem. Having your name and Social Security Number, it’s fairly easy to access someone’ personal information via the internet. It’s also possible to steal someone’s identity, which can lead to many issues including huge debts and even legal problems.

I heard of a woman who had her purse stolen. She contacted her bank and all of her credit card companies. She closed her bank accounts and opened new accounts. Her credit card companies closed out all of her accounts and opened new ones for her. She did everything she had been told to do but someone still stole her identity. They opened up new checking accounts in her name and they even bought a new car in her name. It wasn’t until she started getting all of these bills and late notices that she wondered what she had missed. Turns out, her purse had her Medicare card in it and the thief used the lady’s Social Security Number to help open the accounts and purchase over $80,000 of merchandise, including the car.

Medicare has been flooded with complaints of using a person’s Social Security Number on the Medicare cards for this very reason.

Beginning in April, the US government will be issuing new Medicare cards. They will have pretty much the same information EXCEPT, they will not contain your Social Security Number. Instead, every person will be given an 11-digit ‘Medicare number’. The new number will contain letters and numbers and some letters will be capitalized and others won’t. This new number will be your unique Medicare identification number which will not be linked to your Social Security Number.

With the announcement of the new cards, Medicare has received a lot of questions asking about when their old cards will no longer work or if they don’t have their new card by a certain date and they have a doctor appointment, what do they do, as explained by Casey Schwartz, a senior counsel for education and federal policy at the Medicare Rights Center:

“We’ve had a few people contact us and ask ‘If I don’t have the new card at a doctor’s appointment, does that mean my provider won’t see me?’ That shouldn’t be an issue.”

They are using what they call a rolling basis to issue the new Medicare cards and expect the process to take a full 12-months, which means that everyone should have their new cards by the end of April 2019. However, both the old and new cards will be acceptable until December 31, 2019, by which time everyone should have their new cards.

They also warned that due to the rolling basis they are using to issue the new cards, an older couple who are both on Medicare may not get their cards at the same time and they are warning people not to panic when the happens.

Once you get your new Medicare card, it is recommended that you put your old card away someplace safe and don’t carry it with you any longer. That way, if your purse or wallet end up in the wrong hands, the wrong hands won’t have your Social Security Number, thus helping to prevent you from becoming a victim of ID theft.

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