What You Need to Know About Your New Medicare Card

Replacement cards start coming in April 

and are already triggering new scams

Reprinted from Facebook post: Consumer Reports / Donna Rosato / March 26, 2018

To better protect the 60 million people enrolled in Medicare from identity theft, the government will be sending out new, more secure Medicare cards starting next month.

Instead of identifying members by their Social Security number, the new cards will use a computer-generated series of 11 letters and numbers. The cards will also no longer include a person’s gender or signature.

The use of Social Security numbers on Medicare cards has long been problematic. Whether through theft or fraud, if your number falls into the wrong hands, it can be used to access your bank accounts, steal your Social Security checks, or fraudulently get medical care or prescription drugs in your name.

The change is long overdue, says Casey Schwarz, senior counsel for education and federal policy at the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit organization focused on helping older adults and the disabled access affordable healthcare.

“You show your health insurance card to a lot of people you wouldn’t share your Social Security number with,” she says. “The updated cards provide more modern privacy protections and lower the risk of identity theft.” 

Ironically, the change has sparked a wave of scams targeting people using Medicare.

The Federal Trade Commission says the new scams stated almost as soon as the replacement card program was announced.  

In one typical scheme, fraudsters call Medicare beneficiaries on the phone and tell them that in order to get the new card they need to provide Social Security and bank account information, threatening to cancel their Medicare benefits if they don’t provide both.Seniors, who account for 50 million of the 60 million people using Medicare (the other 10 million are disabled), are especially vulnerable to scams, says Brandy Bauer, communications manager for economic security at the National Council on Aging.

Bauer says older adults are targeted more often because they are perceived to have more money. But scams can have an outsized impact on seniors who live on a fixed income and who don’t have time to rebuild savings. 

"You have a lot of unscrupulous people preying on people in Medicare,” she says.

What to Know About Your New Card

You don’t need to do anything to get your card. Medicare won’t call you to ask for personal or financial information, you don’t have to pay get a new card, and your benefits won’t change. Just make sure Medicare has your current mailing address. If it needs to be updated, contact Social Security, which administers the Medicare program. You can update it online by creating an online account, or you can call 800-772-1213. You can also go to a Social Security field office. You can look up your local branch here.

You may not get your card right away. Delivery of the new cards is rolling out over the next year. Go here to see when to expect the card mailings in your area. You can also check out this page Medicare created with details on the new cards.

You can use your current card till 2020. There is a transition period during which you can use either your new Medicare card or your old card at doctors’ offices and hospitals. Both should work until Dec. 31, 2019. After that, shred your old card—don’t just put it in the trash. The new card is smaller, the size of a credit card, so it fits in your wallet more easily. Beginning Jan. 1, 2020, only the new card will be usable.

You should keep your other Medicare cards. About one-third of people get their Medicare benefits through private insurance plans known as Medicare Advantage. Your Medicare Advantage card—which like the new Medicare cards uses a unique identifier, not your Social Security number—will not change and will still be your main card for Medicare. But you may be asked to show your new Medicare card, too, so keep that with you. Same goes if you have a separate plan for prescription drug coverage, Medicare Part D.

You can get help if you are scammed. If you think you are a victim of identity theft or Medicare fraud, contact your state’s Senior Medicare Patrol, a federally funded program to help Medicare beneficiaries, their family, and caregivers. You can also call the Medicare fraud tip line at 800-447-8477 or the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at 800-633-4227. Unlike a Social Security number, which is difficult to change, you can get a different Medicare number if needed.

What Trump's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Could Mean For You

They could force states to limit benefits and cap the number of people enrolled

Consumers Union / Consumer Reports /  Donna Rosato / May 23, 2017

President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget blueprint calls for huge reductions to social safety net programs. In particular, it targets Medicaid, the program that provides health insurance for millions of poor, disabled, and elderly people, about 1 in 5 Americans. 

Republican plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act already has proposed hitting people on Medicaid hard. The Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) legislation, which the House passed earlier this month, called for $880 billion in cuts to the program. Trump’s budget calls for cutting another $615 billion from Medicaid. Together, the $1.5 trillion in cuts would slash federal Medicaid funds by nearly 50 percent in 10 years.

“This cuts quite a bit more in federal funding than the AHCA alone,” says John Holahan, a fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a non-partisan research organization. “States are going to have to figure out how to make up the difference."

The budget proposal must be approved by Congress and much could change in the meantime. The Senate is working on a healthcare overhaul of its own. Democrats are opposed to steep Medicaid cuts, as are some moderate Senate Republicans, particularly those in states that expanded Medicaid. 

Still, the prospect of such a massive change to the government's largest health insurance program is troubling to consumer advocates.

“The proposed cuts to Medicaid would decimate the program, dramatically reducing the number of people covered and the quality of coverage for the most vulnerable Americans,” says Betsy Imholz, director of special projects for Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization arm of Consumer Reports.

The budget proposal comes at a time when Americans are increasingly concerned about their ability to afford health insurance.

More than half (57 percent) of those surveyed for Consumer Reports second CR Consumer Voices Survey in March said they lack confidence they and their loved ones will be able to afford health insurance.

And 41 percent now say they're not confident they'll have access to quality care to get the doctors, tests, treatments and medications they need. That’s up from 35 percent in the first CR Consumer Voices Survey in January.

How Medicaid Could Change

Here are five things you need to know about how the possible Medicaid cuts proposed by Trump and House Republican leadership would affect you.


1. The proposed cuts in the Trump budget and AHCA wouldn't take place until 2020.

2. How you are affected will depend on where you live. That's because under the current system, the federal government gives states money based on costs no matter how many are enrolled. The Trump budget blueprint reduces the amount given to states but lets each choose how they receive the money. States could opt to receive a limited and capped amount per person enrolled, or take a “block grant” and decide how to spend it. Trump and other Republicans say block grants give states more flexibility to design their own programs. But experts say it will be difficult for states to make up the shortfall from lost federal funds.

3. If enrolled in Medicaid, you might face stricter work requirements and have to cover more costs, such as higher co-pays, out of pocket. That's because the Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging states to experiment with ways to curtail costs. Under current law, several states, including Maine and Wisconsin, have already applied for waivers to make such changes, says Robin Rudowitz, an associate director for the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

It's unclear how much money such changes would save, says Rudowitz. For example, only 15 percent of Medicaid dollars are currently spent on able-bodied adults who might be subject to new work requirements, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute.

4. The disabled and the elderly will be hit the hardest. The disabled account for 42 percent of Medicaid spending, while the elderly account for 21 percent, to pay for services such as long-term care and nursing homes. Another 21 percent of Medicaid spending provides health insurance for children.

5. It's still unknown how many Medicaid recipients might lose coverage in the end. The Congressional Budget Office's initial analysis of the AHCA passed by the House, estimated that 14 million people would drop out of the program if the bill became law. The CBO plans to issue a new analysis Wednesday meant to reflect amendments to the initial AHCA legislation. But that analysis won't take into account the proposed cuts in the Trump budget.

As a result, it's unknown how many people might lose coverage overall, says Dee Mahan, director of Medicaid Initiatives at Families USA, a non-profit focused on consumer healthcare issues. "But this is a massive cost shift from the federal government to states. States won't be able to make up all this money," says Mahan. "A lot of people will lose their coverage."