New Medicare Cards Offer Greater Protection to More than 57.7 Million Americans
New Medicare cards, which will begin mailing in April 2018, will no longer include Social Security numbers. This Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) fraud prevention initiative will help combat identity theft and safeguard taxpayer dollars.
The new cards will use a unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI), which will replace the Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) currently used on Medicare cards. CMS will begin mailing new cards in April 2018, with a congressional deadline for replacing all Medicare cards by April 2019.
Read about the multi-faceted CMS outreach campaign to help providers get ready for the new MBI system: Medicare cards news release
