Medicare to Stop Using SSN

Another change from the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is that Medicare will stop using beneficiary Social Security numbers on the Medicare cards. Section 501 of the new law provides that

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall establish cost-effective procedures to ensure that a Social Security account number (or derivative thereof) is not displayed, coded, or embedded on the Medicare card issued to an individual who is entitled to benefits under part A of title XVIII or enrolled under part B of title XVIII and that any other identifier displayed on such card is not identifiable as a Social Security account number (or derivative thereof).

This will appear in 42 U.S.C. 405(c)(2)(C)(xiii).  The changes won’t necessarily occur immediately and “shall apply with respect to Medicare cards issued on and after an effective date specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, but in no case shall such effective date be later
than the date that is four years after the date of the enactment of this Act.” The same holds true with reissuing cards; HHS has up to 4 years from the date the Secretary picks for the new cards.

This is a critically important step, what with the rise of identity theft.  It has been a long time coming.

Finally.