Next wave of new Medicare cards rolls out

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has started mailing new Medicare cards to beneficiaries who live in “Wave 6” states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. CMS has finished mailing cards to people with Medicare who live in Waves 1, 2, 3, and 4 states and territories.It will begin mailing to Wave 7 states and territories later this month.

If any of your Medicare patients live in a state or territory covered by Waves 1-6 and say they have not yet received their new card, you can tell them  to:

• Sign into MyMedicare.gov to see if CMS has mailed their card. If so, they can print an official card. They must create an account if they do not already have one.
• Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). There might be something that needs to be corrected or updated, such as their mailing address.

You can print out and give your patients a copy of “Still Waiting for Your New Card?” or you can order copies to hand out. You can also direct your Medicare patients to Medicare.gov/NewCard for information about the mailings and to sign up to get email about the status of card mailings in their state. 

CMS is committed to mailing new cards to all Medicare beneficiaries by April 2019. To ensure your Medicare patients continue to receive care, you can use either the patient’s former Social Security Number-based Health Insurance Claim Number or the new alpha-numeric Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) for all Medicare transactions through Dec. 31, 2019. 
 
For additional information on the transition to the new MBI:

• New MBI: Get It, Use It (a Medicare Learning Network Matters Article)
• MLN Fact Sheet
• New Medicare Card Information website

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians