From the PA Department of Aging -The U.S. Congress directed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to come up with a new Medicare card design, requiring that Social Security numbers no longer be used as the beneficiary’s claim number. Accordingly, the Social Security number will be removed from all new Medicare cards.

The new cards will have a randomly chosen Medicare Beneficiary Identifier of 11 characters that can include both numbers and capital letters. Simply put, each Medicare enrollee will receive a new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier that is unique to them, and it will only be used for the individual’s Medicare coverage.

This will help keep the Medicare beneficiary’s information secure and help protect against identity theft. There are a few additional points that need to be highlighted:

• Persons enrolling in Medicare for the first time will be among the first to get a new Medicare card, no matter where they live.
• For current Pennsylvania Medicare beneficiaries receiving a new card, it’s important to remind them that mailing everyone a new card will take some time. One person’s card might arrive at a different time than a family member, a friend, or a neighbor.
• Receiving the new card will happen automatically. A card is mailed to each Medicare beneficiary, at no cost, to the address the beneficiary has on file with the Social Security Administration.
• When the Medicare card is received, they should not simply throw their old card out. Rather, they should shred it or cut it up with a pair of scissors.

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