Is Your Medicare Number Your Social Security Number

Should I Sign Up For Medical Insurance

With our online application, you can sign up for Medicare Part A and Part B. Because you must pay a premium for Part B coverage, you can turn it down.

If youre eligible at age 65, your Initial Enrollment Period begins three months before your 65th birthday, includes the month you turn age 65, and ends three months after that birthday.

Note: Important Upcoming Change Rules for 2023 and later: If you accept the automatic enrollment in Medicare Part B or if you sign up during the first three months of your IEP, your coverage will start the month youre first eligible. Beginning January 1, 2023, if you sign up during the month you turn 65 or during the last three months of your IEP, your coverage starts the first day of the month after you sign up.

The following chart shows when your Medicare Part B becomes effective in 2022:

The following chart shows when your Medicare Part B becomes effective in 2023:

My Medicare Number: Everything You Need To Know

When you enroll in Medicare, you will get your Medicare card in the mail. Your unique Medicare number will be on this card.

You can expect your Medicare card â also called your red, white, and blue card â to come in the mail 3 months before you turn 65 or your 25th month of receiving disability benefits.

Itâs important to note that your card is paper, similar to a Social Security Card, which makes it easy to photocopy. Because your card is paper it make be easily damaged or lost, so be sure to be careful!

Why Is My Medicare More Than My Husbands

That’s because the 2017 cost of living adjustment, or COLA, was 0.3 percent, and Social Security’s hold harmless rule limits your higher Part B premiums to this amount. I’m guessing you have higher Social Security benefits than your husband, so your Part B premium this year will also be higher than his.

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If You Currently Receive Retirement Benefits

Youre in luck in this scenario, too! If you already get retirement benefits, you should receive your Medicare card via mail 3 months prior to your 65th birthday. Itll be mailed to the address you have on file with Social Security Administration, or you may be directed to download it from the Medicare website directly.

If youve recently celebrated your 65th birthday but havent received your Medicare card, we recommend contacting them at 1-800-MEDICARE.

How To Spot Medicare Fraud Before It Happens To You

It’s not always easy to recognize a medical scammer or identity thief â especially if you donât know how to tell if someone is scamming you.

Luckily, there are some clear warning signs that can help identify Medicare scammers.

A Medicare scammer typically:

• Will ask for details such as your Social Security, Medicare, or bank account numbers to give you a quote for a plan.
• Pushes for a payment online or over the phone without sending you a bill.
• Pitches a different product, such as a life insurance policy, instead of sticking to Medicare plans.
• Engages you in conversation about Medicare plans in a healthcare setting, like in an examination room or at a pharmacy counter.
• Charges you a fee to turn your enrollment into a plan.
• Pressures you to sign the enrollment form before youâre ready.
• Requests that you share the names, phone numbers, and addresses of your family members and friends so they can pitch their scams to them.
• Visits you without your invitation to sell you a plan.
• Attempts to influence what plan you choose with erroneous information.

Other telltale signs you shouldnât ignore:

ð Check to see if your sensitive information has been leaked to hackers on the Dark Web using Auraâs Dark Web Scanner â

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What Does A Provider Number Mean

A provider number is a unique number that we issue to eligible health professionals who apply to participate in the Medicare Program. It consists of 8 characters made up of alphas and numerics. Your provider number identifies. · you and your eligibility to have Medicare benefits paid for eligible services you provide.

How To Apply Online For Just Medicare

Are you within three months of turning age 65 or older and not ready to start your monthly Social Security benefits yet? You can use our online retirement application to sign up just for Medicare and wait to apply for your retirement or spouses benefits later. It takes less than 10 minutes, and there are no forms to sign and usually no documentation is required.

To find out what documents and information you need to apply, go to the .

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How Do I Know If I Am Automatically Enrolled In Medicare

Medicare will enroll you in Part B automatically. Your Medicare card will be mailed to you about 3 months before your 65th birthday. If you’re not getting disability benefits and Medicare when you turn 65, you’ll need to call or visit your local Social Security office, or call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.

Medicare Starts Replacing Social Security Numbers On Id Cards

Medicare beneficiaries are getting new ID cards soon that won’t carry their Social Security numbers, the Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday.

Congress had told HHS to get the cards replaced by 2019 to fight identity theft. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said people will start getting new cards next April.

“Personal identity theft affects a large and growing number of seniors,” CMS said in a statement.

“People age 65 or older are increasingly the victims of this type of crime. Incidents among seniors increased to 2.6 million from 2.1 million between 2012 and 2014, according to the most current statistics from the Department of Justice.”

Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for people over 65, covers about 57 million Americans.

“The Medicare Beneficiary Identifier is confidential like the SSN and should be protected as personally identifiable information,” CMS said. The new identifier will be 11 characters long and will include letters and numbers.

Maggie Fox is a senior writer for NBC News and TODAY, covering health policy, science, medical treatments and disease.

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What Do Mbis Mean For People With Medicare

The MBI doesn’t change Medicare benefits.

People with Medicare who belong to a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicare drug plan should keep using their Medicare Advantage and/or Medicare drug plan cards like they always have when they get health care services or fill a prescription. People with Medicare will also need their MBIs when they change plans or are admitted to the hospital.

How Do You Keep Your Card And Information Safe

If you dont want to carry the card with you when youre not going to the doctor, you should keep it in a safe place at home, such as a locked desk drawer or a fireproof safe.

Be sure to put it back in the same place every time once youre done using it. If you forget where you put it, you may need to get a replacement card.

Before 2018, Medicare cards used a subscribers Social Security number as their ID, which led to problems of identity theft. Now that your Medicare number is no longer your SSN, its less risky to lose the card. Nonetheless, you should still be careful about giving out your Medicare number to anyone other than a doctor, pharmacist, insurer or other healthcare professional. Protect it as you do your credit cards, since con artists are always trying to get Medicare beneficiaries personal information.8

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Social Security Numbers Continue To Be Used For Medicare Id Purposes

While the letter codes do not appear on your Social Security card, they are used on your Medicare card. Your Medicare claim number is the Social Security number of the primary wage earner on which benefits are based, plus your appropriate letter code.

Your letter code can change if your benefit category changes. For example, if you get Medicare benefits at age 65 based on your own work record but are deferring claiming your Social Security benefits, you will be assigned the code letter T: that means you are fully insured but have elected to collect only health insurance benefits for now. When you later do sign up to start receiving Social Security monthly payments your letter code will be changed to A and you will get a new Medicare card.

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Remove Social Security Numbers From Medicare Cards

The Social Security Administration advises Americans to keep their Social Security card in a safe place. At the same time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tells their beneficiaries to carry their Medicare card which includes their Social Security number with them at all times. What is a Medicare beneficiary to do? And what should the government do about this conflict?

If beneficiaries carry their Medicare card in their wallet, or their Social Security card for that matter, and it falls into the wrong hands they could be setting themselves up for identity theft and/or fraudulent benefit claims submitted to the Medicare program. For many years, members of Congress and government agencies, including the Social Security Administration and the U. S. Government Accountability Office , have called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards.

The call for removing SSNs from Medicare cards continued. In 2014 the GAO testified at congressional hearings on ways CMS could reduce fraud in Medicare, including the removal of Social Security numbers from the millions of Medicare cards. CMS testified that they agreed with the GAOs recommendations, but at that time they could not proceed for several reasons including funding limitations and the lack of a process for developing and transitioning to a new identifier.

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Do Medicare Cards Expire

Generally speaking, no, your Medicare card wont expire. For the vast majority of people, continuing to pay your annual Medicare premiums will automatically renew your coverage. Youll also notice there are no coverage end dates on your card, only coverage start dates.

Basically, the government has tried to make it as easy as possible to utilize Medicare. But there are a couple of exceptions to the automatic renewal process.

Sometimes, your Medicare coverage changes due to new laws and regulations. But dont stress youll be notified directly if any laws or regulations change your coverage. Youll also need a new Medicare card if you switch from Medicare Advantage back to the original Medicare program.

Medicare Parts A and B will renew automatically, so long as you pay your premiums. So will your Medicare card for these programs. But do keep in mind that youll need to request a new Medicare card if you choose to switch.

A Note On Medicare Fraud

Medicare fraud refers to one individual using anothers Medicare credentials to receive medical care. In some cases, this can be done with just your Medicare number. For this reason, if youve lost your Medicare card, you should make sure to have it replaced as soon as possible.

Aside from lost cards, another form of Medicare fraud involves fraudsters calling you and pretending to represent Medicare. Medicare will never call you and ask for your credentials or information, and you should refrain from sharing your Medicare number over the phone.

As a general rule, only share your Medicare information with your health care provider, preferably only in person.

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What Should I Do If My Patient’s Mbi Changes

Medicare beneficiaries or their authorized representatives can ask to change their MBIs for example, if the MBI is compromised. CMS can also change an MBI. It’s possible for your patient to seek care before getting a new card with the new MBI.

If you get a HETS eligibility transaction error code of invalid member ID, your patients MBI may have changed.

• Do a historic eligibility search to get the termination date of the old MBI.
• Get the new MBI from your Medicare Administrative Contractors secure MBI look-up tool. for the Portal to use the tool.

When to use old or new MBIs:

Fee-For-Service claims submissions with:

• Dates of service before the MBI change date use old or new MBIs
• Span-date claims with a From Date before the MBI change date use old or new MBIs
• Dates of service that are entirely on or after the effective date of the MBI change use new MBIs

FFS eligibility transactions when the inquiry uses:

• A new MBI we’ll return all eligibility data.
• The old MBI and request date or date range overlap the active period for the old MBI we’ll return all eligibility data. We will also return the old MBI termination date.
• The old MBI and request date or date range are entirely on or after the effective date of the new MBI we’ll return an error code of invalid member ID.

Things To Know About Your New Medicare Card

Got Medicare? Read on!

Until now, losing your Medicare card was as significant a problem as losing your Social Security card. Thats because your Medicare card included your Social Security number.

You know how important your Social Security number isand how you never want it to fall into the wrong hands. Its tied to your identity in a lot of ways, and in the wrong hands, it could lead to identity theft.

A new lawthe Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015required Medicare to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. The existing Health Insurance Claim Number on cards, which is based on Social Security numbers, will be replaced with whats called the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, or MBI.

This month, the U.S. government began the process of mailing Medicare users the new card. The idea of replacing the Social Security number with the MBI is to help keep your personal information more secure and help protect your identity.

The changeover wont happen overnight. In fact, the government will mail out the cards over the course of a yearfrom April 2018 through April 2019.

What will the new Medicare card look like?The new Medicare card will still be white, with red, blue, and black print, but it will sport a different design, as shown in the samples below from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website. The new card will be made of paper, not plastic. This is intended to make the card easier for providers to use and copy.

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How Do You Replace Your Medicare Card

You can get a new copy of your card by logging onto your online Social Security account. If you dont have a Social Security account yet, youll have to create one to request a new card. Medicare beneficiaries can also call 1-800-772-1213 or contact their local Social Security office to receive a copy of their card.

According to the Health and Human Services Department, it can take about 30 days for your replacement card to arrive in the mail. You can also go online to your Medicare account and print a copy of your card from there until the official copy arrives.6

If you lost your Medicare card and believe that someone else might be using your number, call 1-800-MEDICARE .

What Is Medicare Red White And Blue Card

Everyone who enrolls in Medicare receives a red, white, and blue Medicare card. This card lists your name and the dates that your Original Medicare hospital insurance and medical insurance began. It will also show your Medicare number, which serves as an identification number in the Medicare system.

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What Do You Need To Know About Your Medicare Card

Your red-white-and-blue paper Medicare card is similar to other health insurance cards you may have had in the past. It acts as proof that you have Medicare health insurance, and it provides the starting date of your coverage.

Did You Know?

A red-white-and-blue paper Medicare card is mailed to adults who are turning 65 and enrolled in Medicare.

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Check If Your Child Has A Credit Report

Generally, a child under 18 wont have a credit report unless someone is using his or her information for fraud. A good way to find out if someone is using your childs information to commit fraud is to check if your child has a credit report. To do that, contact the three credit bureaus and ask for a manual search for your childs Social Security number. You may have to give the credit bureaus a copy of

• your drivers license or other government-issued identification card
• proof of your address, like a utility bill, or a credit card or insurance statement
• your childs birth certificate
• your childs Social Security card

If youre not the childs parent, you may have to give the credit bureaus a copy of documents that prove you are the childs legal guardian.

When Your Child Turns 16

When your child turns 16, you may want to check if theres a credit report in his or her name. This could help you spot identity theft, since children under 18 usually dont have a credit report. If theres inaccurate information in your childs credit report, youll have time to correct it before he or she applies for a job, a college loan, a car loan, or a credit card, or tries to rent a place to live.

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