New Medicare card rollout coming in April; beware of scammers

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New Medicare cards will be mailed automatically to enrollees beginning April 1, 2018.

Congress has listened to the concerns of older adults, clinics, pharmacies and organizations such as AARP and issued Medicare cards that are redesigned to make it harder for con artists to steal your identity.

The new Medicare cards will not show your Social Security number, your gender or your signature. Instead, each person will be randomly assigned a Medicare beneficiary number with a mix of 11 numbers and letters.

You can see the new design online or in the 2018 Medicare and You Handbook, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mailed out during September.

Old Medicare cards will be replaced beginning April 1, 2018.

The new Medicare cards will be mailed beginning April 1, 2018. You don’t have to request a new card, and it is free.

Be aware that con artists are already trying to cheat Medicare members. At least three scams are being used:

  1. Someone phones and asks for your current Medicare number and bank information so you can get your new card. Just hang up on the caller. You will not be asked for any financial information in order to get your card. The whole idea of new cards is to separate your identity information from you Medicare card.
  2. Someone phones and threatens that you’ll lose your benefits if you don’t pay for a new card. The new cards are free and will be mailed to you automatically in April 2018.
  3. Someone asks you to turn in your old card. After you receive your new Medicare card, completely destroy your old card because it has your Social Security number on it. If you have a paper shredder, shred your old card, or use a scissors to cut it into tiny pieces. Don’t just throw the card in the garbage whole because someone could fish it out and get you information.

More information will be coming soon. Watch ThePerryNews.com, and visit the Medicare website.

Ann Cochran is the health navigation coordinator in the Dallas County Public Health Department.

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