Medicare replaces 60 million cards

Фото: Depositphotos

Medicare is preparing to issue millions of cards with new identification numbers for its insurers 60. Such a step will be taken as one of the ways to combat identity theft and fraud.

Issue of cards will begin in April next year. The transition program to the new insurance numbers should be fully completed by 2019. Congress has allocated $ 242 million to the program for creating new cards, which will be issued in tranches over 4 years.

“We want to make this process as simple as possible for everyone involved,” said Seema Verma, center administrator Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Still Medicare used social security numbers of people. But Congress in 2015 passed a law requiring the agency to change this practice to protect older people from identity theft. A special program will randomly form a sequence of 11 numbers and letters, which will become the number of the insurance card.

"Changing numbers for nearly 60 million people in Medicare may be a problem, but it's a good idea given the challenges associated with identity theft,” says Tricia Neumann, program director of policy Medicare at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

В Medicare They recommend that older people not carry the original card with them, but make a copy in which they need to cross out the last 4 digits of the number.

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