Medicare is taking steps to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. Through this initiative the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will prevent fraud, fight identity theft and protect essential program funding and the private healthcare and financial information of our Medicare beneficiaries.

New cards will begin being sent to people with Medicare benefits in April 2018. All Medicare cards will be replaced by April 2019. The rollout will be by region.

To make this change easier for providers and beneficiaries, there is a 21-month transition period where all healthcare providers will be able to use either the new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) or the old Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) for billing purposes.

CMS will have a website, is sending out handbooks to all beneficiaries and will have call centers trained to answer question from beneficiaries and providers.