On September 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) announced its newly designed Medicare card and
informed all Medicare beneficiaries to look for their new card in
the mail. The new Medicare card contains a unique, randomly
assigned number that replaces the current Social Security-based
number to help prevent fraud and combat identify theft.
Medicare beneficiaries will begin receiving the new cards in the
mail starting in April 2018 with instructions to destroy the old
card. The issuance of the new card does not change any Medicare
benefits. Providers will be able to use a secure website to look up
the new Medicare numbers but CMS will allow a 21-month transition
period in which doctors, other healthcare providers, and suppliers
will be able to use either the current SSN-based Medicare numbers
or the new, unique Medicare numbers.
CMS has published a fact sheet for providers about the new
Medicare numbers and cards.
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