Northwest Iowa — New Medicare cards are going out to everyone in the program, and that’s opened the opportunity for scammers to try and take advantage of the change.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Julie Brookhart, says the new cards will no longer have your Social Security number on them. She says the cards are being mailed out and you should not listen if someone tells you something different.
Brookhart says scammers will try all sorts of things to get your money or personal information.
Brookhart says the new cards are free and all you have to do is bring it in from the mailbox.
There are more than 600-thousand Iowans who are on Medicare. Brookhart says everyone in Iowa should be getting their card by they middle of this month.
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Original post 12:57pm 7/31/2018
Northwest Iowa — If you’re on Medicare you should be seeing a new card showing up in your mailbox sometime soon.
Julie Brookhart, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says the new cards will no longer use your Social Security number to identify you. She says that’s the only thing that is different, as it does NOT change your Medicare benefits. Brookhart says they’ve been getting requests for years to take the Social Security numbers off the Medicare cards as a security issue to help prevent identity theft.
The Social Security numbers have appeared on the cards since the program began back in 1966. She says the change was made for security reasons.
She says you can help ensure your new card gets to you.
You can also take care of it online.
Brookhart says the new Medicare card doesn’t replace any of the other cards you need for your health care.
Brookhart says once you get the new card in the mail, you should shred the old card that has your Social Security number on it.
