As a reminder, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently began mailing new Medicare ID cards to beneficiaries and this will continue through April 2019. The new cards have a unique Medicare identification number, also called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). You can review our past communication here.

Please note: In most cases, Aetna will receive the new Medicare numbers from CMS before our existing members get their new Medicare card and number in the mail.

For example, the new Medicare numbers now appear in Individual Medicare enrollment and commission-related reports on Producer World for all existing membership.

Nonetheless, you may not share new Medicare numbers with your clients. Each number is Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The Social Security Administration (SSA) should be the only party to communicate the new Medicare number to each beneficiary. If members need to know their new Medicare number before receiving their card in the mail, they should contact the SSA.