Medicare Numbers Transition: Begins April 1

Medicare is finally transitioning its beneficiary ID numbers (known as Health Insurance Claim Numbers, or, HICNs) beginning April 1, 2018. This change is required by a 2015 law, and Medicare first announced this transition nearly a year ago on May 31, 2017. See our previous blog post on this topic by clicking here.

How will the transition process work?

Medicare gave some more detail on the process on March 14, 2018 via a blast email. That email explained the transition will be gradual and new IDs will be called Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs). Massive representatives reached out to our own Medicare contacts for more details:

1. CMS will issue MBIs in a geographic pattern. That pattern remains privately known to only Medicare at this time;
2. Once an MBI is issued, the BCRC and CRC will immediately begin using it on correspondence;
3. Those same Medicare agents will continue to accept HICNs and SSNs for now, even where an MBI is issued; and,
4. You can obtain an MBI simply by waiting for the next piece of Medicare correspondence as it will automatically change.

As always – we recommend plaintiff attorneys request copies of all health insurance cards from their clients. It might be prudent to try to remind them to send updated cards whenever they receive them (this helps both with the MBI transition and with other new insurance a plaintiff might obtain). Finally, CMS has clearly stated, “each MBI is unique, randomly generated, and the characters are ‘non-intelligent,’ which means they don’t have any hidden or special meaning.”

We’re preparing for these changes – if you need assistance or advice on any Medicare lien resolution issues please contact us at 844.633.5436.