Judith Graham
In April, the federal government will begin sending out new Medicare cards, launching a large, yearlong effort to change how 59 million individuals enrolled within the federal medical insurance program are recognized.
Historically, Medicare ID playing cards have been stamped with the Social Security numbers of members — at the moment, about 50 million seniors and 9 million individuals with critical disabilities. But that’s been problematic: If a pockets or purse have been stolen, a thief might use that data, together with an tackle or birthdate on a driver’s license, to steal somebody’s identification.
For years, telephone scammers have preyed on older adults by requesting their Medicare numbers, giving numerous causes for doing so. People who fall for these ruses have discovered financial institution accounts emptied, Social Security funds diverted or payments of their mailboxes for medical companies or gear by no means acquired.
The new playing cards tackle these considerations by eradicating every member’s Social Security quantity and changing it with a brand new, randomly generated 11-digit “Medicare number” (some capital letters are included). This will probably be used to confirm eligibility for companies and for billing functions going ahead.
Such a significant change can contain bumps alongside the best way, so there will probably be a transition interval throughout which you should utilize both your new Medicare card or your outdated card at docs’ places of work and hospitals. Both ought to work till Dec. 31, 2019.
If you overlook your new card at house, your physician’s employees ought to be capable to lookup your new Medicare quantity up at a safe pc web site. Or, they will use data that’s already on file throughout the transition interval.
“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?’” stated Casey Schwartz, senior counsel for schooling and federal coverage on the Medicare Rights Center. “That shouldn’t be an issue.”
Cards will probably be despatched to individuals lined by Medicare on a rolling basis over a 12-month interval ending in April 2019. Older adults in Alaska, California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia would be the first to obtain the mailings, between April and June, together with a number of U.S. territories — American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The final wave of states will probably be Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee, together with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
“If your sister who lives in another state gets her card before you, don’t fret,” the Federal Trade Commission defined in a new alert. Since the playing cards are going out in waves, “your card may arrive at a different time than hers.”
If you suppose Social Security may not have your present tackle, name 1-800-772-1213 or examine your on-line Social Security account at https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/, the FTC suggested.
When you get your new Medicare card, don’t throw your outdated one within the trash. Instead, put it by a shredder or “spend time cutting it up with a pair of scissors” to verify the half exhibiting your Social Security quantity is destroyed, stated Amy Nofziger, a fraud skilled for AARP.
Those numbers stay sought-after by scammers, and AARP and Senior Medicare Patrol teams inform of receiving fraud studies associated to Medicare playing cards since final 12 months.
In one rip-off, reported by California’s Area 1 Agency on Aging, a caller purporting to symbolize Medicare or one other authorities company claims to want your checking account data so Medicare can prepare a direct deposit of funds into your account. The new Medicare playing cards are used as an excuse for the decision.
In one other, circulating in Iowa, scammers are threatening to cancel seniors’ medical insurance in the event that they don’t give out their present Medicare card numbers. “We’re telling people, don’t ever give someone this number — just hang up,” stated Nancy Ketcham, elder rights specialist on the Elderbridge Agency on Aging, which serves 29 counties in northwestern Iowa.
A month in the past, Alfonso Hernandez, 65, who lives in Moreno Valley, Calif., acquired a name from a person who advised him, in Spanish, that Medicare was going to situation new playing cards and that he wanted to confirm some data, together with Hernandez’s title, tackle and Social Security quantity.
“I said no, normally, I don’t give my Social Security number to anyone,” Hernandez stated. At that time, the caller put his “supervisor” on the telephone, who stated the federal government wanted to verify it had right data. Caught off guard, Hernandez recited his Social Security quantity and, “as soon as I did that, they hung up.”
“Immediately, I’m like ‘oh my God, what did I do,’” stated Hernandez, who rapidly contacted credit score companies to have them put an alert on his account. “I just keep praying that nothing happens.”
Just final week, California’s Senior Medicare Patrol program acquired a report of one other rip-off detected in Riverside County: a caller claiming that earlier than a senior can get a brand new Medicare card, she or he has to pay $5 to $50 for a brand new “temporary” card, based on Sandy Morales, a case supervisor with this system.
Nofziger of AARP stated a Medicare consultant won’t ever contact an older grownup by telephone or electronic mail in regards to the new playing cards and will definitely “never ask for money or personal information or threaten to cancel your health benefits.” The new Medicare playing cards are free and also you don’t must do something to obtain one: They’re being despatched robotically to everybody enrolled in this system. Don’t give out any data to callers who contact you by telephone, she suggested.
If you think fraud, report it to the FTC , AARP’s fraud assist line, 1-877-908-3360, or your local Senior Medicare Patrol program.
If you’re amongst almost 18 million seniors and other people with critical disabilities who’ve protection by a Medicare Advantage plan, hold the cardboard that your plan issued you. Medicare Advantage plans are supplied by personal insurance coverage firms, which have their very own means of figuring out members. Similarly, if in case you have prescription drug protection by Medicare — one other profit supplied by personal insurance coverage firms – hold your card for that plan as effectively.