Medicare is taking steps to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. Through this initiative CMS seeks to prevent fraud, fight identity theft and protect essential program funding and the private healthcare and financial information of Medicare beneficiaries.

CMS will issue new Medicare cards with a new unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) to replace the existing Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) both on the cards and in various CMS systems we use now. CMS will start mailing new cards to people with Medicare benefits in April 2018. All Medicare cards will be replaced by April 2019.

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