To prevent fraud and identity theft, beginning next year in April, Medicare will mail its 55.3 million beneficiaries new cards on which the Social Security Number (SSN) will be replaced with a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) of 11 letters and numbers.
Con artists are opportunists and target seniors, especially in times of transition or change. Senior Medicare Patrols (SMPs) nation-wide are already receiving reports from beneficiaries of calls from scammers posing as government officials from Medicare, Social Security Administration, IRS, etc. They may claim they need to confirm the beneficiary’s SSN and charge a fee for the new card to expedite the service. Medicare will NOT charge for the new card, nor will they call to confirm the SSN! Beneficiaries that receive calls like this should hang up and report it to Indiana SMP.
On June 14, the new 
