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Medicare recipients will soon receive a new card and Attorney General Andy Beshear is warning them to be aware of a new scam.
The new cards are designed to help minimize fraud by replacing members’ Social Security numbers with 11-digit ID numbers and are triggering scam warnings across the nation. The cards have already been mailed to residents of some states, according to a schedule published by AARP, while Kentuckians will receive their cards sometime after June.
Beshear’s office reports scammers are pretending to be Center for Medicare and Medicaid employees calling enrollees and claiming they need to provide personal and financial information or a payment to receive, replace or activate their new card.
Medicare, the federal health insurance program for American 65 of age or older, was ordered by Congress in 2015 to change the ID number from social security numbers to a new system, and as long as a recipient’s address is up to date, they need do nothing. But if an address has changed, they are urged to contact Medicare immediately.
This year, Beshear’s Office of Senior Protection and Mediation received reports of Medicare and other insurance scams in Anderson, Boone, Boyle, Gallatin, Jefferson, Jessamine, Kenton, Scott and Spencer counties.
There are 900,000 Medicare enrollees in Kentucky who will be receiving the new cards.
