The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is required to remove Social Security Numbers (SSNs) from all Medicare cards by April 2019. A new, unique Medicare Number is replacing the SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) on each new Medicare card. Starting April 2018, CMS began mailing new Medicare cards to all people with Medicare on a flow basis, based on geographic location and other factors. Existing Medicare patients in North Carolina will start receiving the new cards in June 2018.
Your new ID number will be referred to as your Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). Your MBI will be:
- 11 characters in length
- Unique and randomly generated
- Made up of numbers and uppercase letters
- Will be easy to read and will exclude letters that may be interpreted as numbers, such as S, L, O, I, B
- Will contain no special characters
- Will be “non-intelligent”, or having no special meaning
- You don’t need to do anything to get a new card, but you should make sure your mailing address is up to date. Visit ssa.gov/myaccount or call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY: 1-800-325-0778) to correct your mailing address, if updates are needed.
- Medicare will never call and ask for personal information before sending new cards, so don’t share your Medicare Number or other personal information if someone calls and asks for it.
- Medicare will mail more information with the new cards – check Medicare.gov for the latest updates.
The MBI will not change your Medicare benefits and you can start using your new card as soon as you receive it. The effective date on your new card will remain the same, being the date the beneficiary was or is eligible for Medicare.
Please remember to bring your new Medicare card, as well as secondary and tertiary insurance cards, with you to your appointments. Providing our staff will the most up-to-date information will help us file and get your claims processed in a timely fashion so that in turn, you will receive reimbursement.
