If you’ve been waiting around for your new Medicare card to show up, keep an eye on your mailbox!
In a move to combat medical identity theft, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is issuing new cards that no longer include Social Security numbers.
You’ve probably heard about this for a few years, but it’s finally happening…
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New Medicare card mailing schedule: Here’s what you need to know
New Medicare cards will gradually be mailed to everyone with Medicare based on geographic location and other factors. Here’s what the new paper cards look like:
You can sign up to receive an email when your card is in the mail at medicare.gov/newcard. All you have to do is enter your email address and state. This map from Medicare shows where things stand as of August 20, 2018:
New Medicare cards: Mailing now
- Alabama
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Georgia
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Vermont
This is important: Medicare will automatically mail your new card for free to the address you have on file with Social Security. Click here if you need to update your mailing address.
More details
The SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) is being replaced with an 11-character Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI), which is made up of numbers and uppercase letters.
Each MBI is randomly generated and the characters don’t have any hidden or special meaning.
Once you receive your new Medicare card with an MBI, you can use it right away and destroy your old card. Your coverage and benefits will stay the same.