The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will start mailing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in April 2018. This is part of an effort to comply with a law that requires CMS to remove Social Security numbers (SSNs) from all Medicare cards by April 2019.
Please note: the new cards are for original Medicare and do not apply to Medicare Advantage plans, like the ones ConnectiCare offers. ConnectiCare Medicare Advantage ID cards do not use or include Social Security numbers.
The reissued Medicare cards will have new Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) that replace the SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) used for Medicare transactions, like billing and claim status.
The new MBI should be treated like personal health information. To find out what the new Medicare cards mean for providers, check out this resource from CMS.
