By Dana Markley, RHIA
Did you know that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is removing Social Security numbers from Medicare cards?
CMS recently published an article about the transition to new Medicare numbers and cards. CMS has been tasked with removing all social security numbers from all Medicare cards from April 2019. A new unique Medicare number called a "Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI)" will replace the current Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN). The MBI will assist in protecting patients from identity theft and illegal use. New cards will start being mailed in April 2018. Beginning in April 2018, first-time Medicare recipients will receive a card with a new Medicare number. You will no longer will be to identify a patient who qualifies for Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) by the number listed on their card. Going forward we will be able to identify this by the logo on their card.
In anticipation of October 2018, organizations should prepare to update their systems to accept this new number. MBIs will have 11 characters and will be randomly generated to include numbers and uppercase letters. An example of a new number is: 1EG4-TE5-MK73
CMS states they will release the new card design in September 2017. The gender and signature line will be removed from new cards. Latest details about this transition will be posted on this site : https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/new-Medicare-card/
A number is a concept that arises from the result to have things that are an aggregate or a generalization of this concept.
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