Home Health & Hospice Week

What do you do when an MBI changes?

Is it your patients’ turn to wade into the new Medicare card ocean?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has “started mailing new Medicare cards to people with Medicare who live in Wave 5 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina,” the agency says. And don’t forget, “we continue to mail new cards to people who live in Wave 4 states, as well as nationwide to people who are new to Medicare.”

If your patients are in Wave 1, 2, or 3 states and haven’t received a new card, have them call 1-800-MEDICARE or log onto MyMedicare.gov to determine what the problem is, CMS advises. Other tips for the new Medicare cards:

• If a patient’s Medicare Beneficiary Identifier number changes — either at the beneficiary’s request or because the MBI number has been compromised — you can use the old or new MBI for dates of service up until the effective date of the new MBI, CMS explains. But for “dates of service that are entirely on or after the effective date of the MBI change — use the new MBI,” the agency instructs in a message to providers.
• Don’t get excited about the new square QR codes on Medicare cards. The square codes “allow the contractor who prints the cards to ensure the right card goes to the right person with Medicare or Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) benefits,” CMS explains. “Providers cannot use it for any other purpose.”

Cards with the codes on back (Medicare) or front (RRB) “are legitimate (official) Medicare cards,” CMS assures providers.