CMS Announces First States to Receive New Medicare Cards

CMS has now announced the first states, including the District of Columbia and territories, where beneficiaries will receive new Medicare cards with new ID numbers from April to June 2018. These states are divided into two groups that CMS refers to as “waves”:

• Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia are in the first wave.
• The second wave consists of jurisdictions located in or bordering the Pacific Ocean: Alaska, American Samoa, California, Guam, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands and Oregon.

CMS notes Medicare beneficiaries in the rest of the states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will receive their new cards “after June 2018.” Although the time frame has not yet been determined, all remaining jurisdictions have been placed in one of five additional waves. For details, see the CMS announcement.

For a visual summary of the SSNRI, see Segal’s infographic Removal of Social Security Numbers from Medicare Beneficiary Cards on the Horizon: Change Will Have Implications for Group Health Plans.