Your Medicare card: Go ahead, leave home without it
It’s a peculiar anachronism in this era of digital insecurity: Social Security numbers are printed on every Medicare card, and the back of the card instructs seniors to carry it with them at all times. (Medicare’s identification number is called the Health Insurance Claim Number, but your HICN is your Social Security number.)
If a card falls into the wrong hands, the result could be identity theft and fraudulent benefit claims submitted to the Medicare system on your behalf. While the federal government has recognized the risk for years, and bills have been introduced in Congress to compel removal of the numbers, nothing much has happened.
The problem extends beyond Medicare cards. For example, the Medicare Summary Notice that is mailed to beneficiaries quarterly also displays the full HICN. In 2010 and 2011, more than 13,000 notices – which list the services you’ve received – were mailed to the wrong addresses because of a printing error by a government contractor, according to the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services.
No federal or law enforcement agency tracks data on Social Security number theft from Medicare cards, but the problem is widely acknowledged. On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it recovered a record-high $4.3 billion in fiscal 2013 from attempted fraud schemes directed at Medicare and other federal health insurance programs.
“What I hear from law enforcement is that it’s rampant,” says Sally Hurme, project adviser in health education and outreach at AARP, which has been urging Congress to pass legislation mandating removal of Social Security numbers from Medicare cards.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – What’s in seniors’ wallets? Most likely, a Medicare card that leaves them vulnerable to scams and fraud. It’s a peculiar anachronism in this era of digital insecurity: Social Security numbers are printed on every Medicare card, and the back of the card instructs seniors to carry […]
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