There is great news for Medicare enrollees, and a bit of caution regarding scammers. The good news is that Medicare will be sending out new Medicare cards to each Medicare enrollee. The cards will arrive sometime between April 1st of this year and will be completed by April 1st of next year.
The new cards will not have the enrollee’s Social Security number on them, as they do now. This is a major accomplishment for Medicare and is being done to help stop identity theft via Social Security identification numbers. This has been a big problem nationally and can be very damaging for Medicare enrollees who have had their cards compromised by internet bandits.
The new cards will have an encrypted 11 digit number, that even the cardholder won’t be able to “unencrypt.” So that is good news. I understand that the new cards will be sent out to Medicare enrollees in Georgia sometime after June 1st this year.
Often there’s a flip side to good news. The bad news is that Medicare scammers are trying to take advantage of seniors while Medicare rolls out the new Medicare ID card program. There are two primary methods involved.
First, scammers are phoning Medicare recipients, sometimes identifying themselves as Medicare or “government” officials, and telling them that the new cards are coming out, but that the enrollee will have to spend anywhere from $30-50 to get their new card. That’s a lie – there is no charge for the new cards – furthermore, Medicare never uses the phone to contact people – it only uses the US Postal Service to communicate.
The second technique is for the scammer to say that they have a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plan available, but then they request personal Medicare information so that the new plan can be utilized. This is also bogus. Don’t fall for this. Medicare information is personal, and the scammers simply use it for other illegal activities.
So, if you receive one of these calls, just hang up, and report the activity with a call to 1-800-Medicare. The scammers are well-trained in intimidation and persistence techniques but don’t yield to the pressure – Just say No and hang up.