Your ID Card contains information important to you and your health care provider.

Outside of your name, policy number, provider network name, plan name and code, this information helps a health care provider process your claims. New cards are not issued every year. However, to the under-65 market, who purchase their own insurance, new ID Cards were issued.

The difference is a new, 3-letter prefix before your ID Number. If you have more than one card in your wallet and you’re confused as to which one you should use, please check the back of the card for the print date. The card with the most recent print date is the card to keep and start using as of January 1, 2014.

As a little tip, having been through some serious health concern with my husband, I strongly encourage husband and wife to carry copies of each others ID Cards AND a current prescription drug list. We all can access this information from many different sources, but in a time of emergency, the patient needs an advocate and to better help health care providers administer care as quickly as possible, they need your insurance information and it is always helpful to have that prescription drug list.