Identity Theft Risk With Medicare Cards?

The Social Security Administration wants Medicare to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards over concerns that it “unnecessarily places millions of individuals at risk for identity theft.” More than 40 million people have Medicare cards with Social Security numbers on them.

However, Social Security cannot prohibit Medicare from using Social Security numbers (only Congress could do so), and Medicare officials resisted the suggestion, saying that replacing Social Security numbers on Medicare cards would be costly and impractical. While the Office of Management and Budget said Medicare should eliminate the use of Social Security numbers within 18 months, Medicare said that it would take 10 years and cost $500 million.

Most private insurance companies have abandoned the use of Social Security numbers as identifiers because most states forbid it. The director of the antifraud department at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said that medical identity theft is the fastest-growing form of health care fraud, and to prevent such fraud, Blue Cross and Blue Shield stopped using Social Security numbers on their cards several years ago. Further, many federal agencies are taking steps to remove Social Security numbers from identification cards.

Social Security said that the numbers were “linked to vast amounts of personal information”, and that individuals who carry their Medicare cards could become victims of identity theft. However, Medicare played down the risk of identity theft from the misuse of Medicare cards, and warned that if the government suddenly issued new Medicare cards or identification numbers, it could startle or alarm beneficiaries.

Source: New York Times