Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
OIG Recommends Removing SSNs From Medicare Cards
It’s a common complaint: You ask your patient for his Medicare card and he complains that he doesn’t like you making copies of it because it includes his Social Security Number (SSN). Because Americans are increasingly warned not to share their SSN with anyone, this creates a problem both for practices that need a copy of the Medicare card and for beneficiaries who are wary of identity theft.
Hopefully the latest HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) recommendation will change that. On March 24, the OIG’s Deputy Inspector General Gary Cantrell testified before Congress about Medicare fraud, and the SSN issue was on his mind.
“Removing Social Security numbers from Medicare cards is one step that would help protect the PII [personally identifiable information] of Medicare beneficiaries,” Cantrell said in his testimony. “Experts in health care program integrity advise that Medical Identity Theft is a prevalent and increasing crime that is closely linked to Medicare fraud, and additional safeguards are needed to protect the identities of beneficiaries.”
It’s unclear whether CMS will adopt Cantrell’s recommendation, but keep an eye on this issue to find out if and when a new look might be added to your patients’ Medicare cards.
Resource: To read Cantrell’s complete testimony, visit oig.hhs.gov/testimony/docs/2015/cantrell-032415.pdf
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