New Medicare Cards

MoneyTips

If you're a Medicare beneficiary, check your mail very carefully. You'll be receiving a new Medicare card with an important new identification number that you'll need soon.

Your current Medicare ID card contains a Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN), which is the same as your Social Security number. Your HICN serves as your identification for health care plans and providers as well as Medicare/Medicaid systems and the Railroad Retirement Board.

Because of the increased potential for identity theft through exposed Social Security numbers, Congress established that a separate identifier be created for Medicare through the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. The new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) will be an 11-character string with random numbers and capital letters.

Beginning in April 2018, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services...