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Joined: 2/7/2012 Posts: 451
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The Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin issuing new Medicare Cards to over 60M Medicare members beginning April 2018. To help prevent fraud and identity theft, the
cards will no longer include the social security number (SSN). The new Medicare cards will have a randomly
assigned number called a “Medicare Beneficiary Identifier” (MBI). Because of the large volume of Medicare
enrollees, the replacement cards will be mailed from April, 2018 through April,
2019 in waves by geographic location.
It may take several weeks to months after
the mailing begins for enrollees to receive their new Medicare card.
DON’T get scammed……
There are already scammers calling enrollees pretending to
be with Medicare or hired by Medicare.
They say that there is a fee to receive the replacement card and will
want your credit card number so they can charge the fictional
mailing/replacement fee. Other scammers
say they want to “verify” your existing Medicare number (which is the social
security number!) in order to authorize mailing of your replacement card. THESE ARE SCAMS.
The new Medicare Cards are FREE
and will be mailed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. For more
information on the Medicare card replacement project you can go to www.cms.gov
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Joined: 1/22/2013 Posts: 210
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Thanks for the heads up! We really need a new card. My mom's is falling apart.
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Joined: 7/15/2016 Posts: 966
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Thank you for that info, JustLikeMom.
To keep your Medicare card from falling apart, get it laminated. (Do the same with your SSN card.) Just take it to Staples or Office Depot or Office Max, and ask them to laminate it for you. I think it cost me under $2 to do that.
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Joined: 1/22/2018 Posts: 121
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Thank you for the heads up "Just LikeMom". Excellent information to have.
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Joined: 11/6/2017 Posts: 39
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Please review this FAQ about laminating your Social Security Card:
https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/34019/Article/3786/Can-I-laminate-my-Social-Security-card
I keep mine in a plastic sleeve and don't carry it with me. It's lasted very well for many years.
Hope this helps.
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Joined: 9/21/2017 Posts: 309
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https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/Open-Door-Forums.html
There are slides of the new Medicare card program .The new number is alpha and numbers .
Will be pretty darn hard to remember.
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Joined: 1/31/2018 Posts: 19
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We have already had at least a dozen of these calls. It is so annoying.
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Joined: 5/2/2013 Posts: 231
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If they catch these scammers they should tar and feather them. But knowing
our government they will just give them a pat on the hand. What a shame.
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Joined: 8/6/2016 Posts: 322
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I thought you were not allowed to laminate SS cards?
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