{"id":2994,"date":"2023-05-15T09:46:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T09:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alcleanscarpet.site\/Weatherby\/2023\/05\/15\/be-on-the-lookout-for-new-medicare-cards-and-new-card-related-scams\/"},"modified":"2023-06-05T10:11:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T10:11:33","slug":"be-on-the-lookout-for-new-medicare-cards-and-new-card-related-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alcleanscarpet.site\/Weatherby\/be-on-the-lookout-for-new-medicare-cards-and-new-card-related-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Be on the Lookout for New Medicare Cards (and New Card-Related Scams)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BeThe federal government is issuing new Medicare cards to all Medicare beneficiaries. To prevent fraud and fight identity theft<\/span>, t<\/span><\/span>he new cards will no longer have beneficiaries’\u00a0Social Security numbers on them.<\/p>\n

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is replacing each beneficiary’s Social Security number with a unique identification number, called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). Each MBI will consist of a combination of 11 randomly generated numbers and upper case letters. The characters are “non-intelligent,” which means they don’t have any hidden or special meaning. The MBI is confidential like the Social Security number and should be kept similarly private.<\/span><\/p>\n

The CMS will begin mailing the cards in April 2018 in phases based on the state<\/a> the beneficiary lives in. The new cards should be completely distributed by April 2019. If your mailing address is not up to date, call 800-772-1213, visit www.ssa.gov<\/span><\/a>, or go to a local Social Security office to update it.<\/p>\n

The changeover is attracting scammers who are using the introduction of the new cards as a fresh opportunity to separate Medicare beneficiaries from their money. According to Kaiser Health News<\/a>, the scams to look out for include phone calls with callers:<\/p>\n