The process has already begun to remove social security numbers from Medicare cards to prevent fraud, prevent identity theft and keep tax-payer dollars safe. These new cards will be mailed from April 2018 – April 2019.

Your new Medicare health insurance card (your red, white and blue card) will have a scrambled identification number containing letters and numbers (HICN – Health Insurance Claim Number). The process is a national process and the United States has been divided into regions and each region is having a different beginning date so that there is a wave of mailings going on across the US.

If you’re talking to your best friend in Pennsylvania and they already have their card and you don’t, don’t panic. Yours will be coming soon. When you get your new card, please take your old one out of your wallet – it won’t work. Don’t throw it away – destroy it. The idea is to protect your identify from theft.