Monday, September 18, 2017

New Medicare Cards Coming In April 2018

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is implementing a fraud prevention initiative that removes Social Security numbers from Medicare cards to help prevent identity theft, and safeguard taxpayer dollars.

Under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015, the CMS must remove Social Security Numbers (SSNs) from all Medicare cards by April 2019. A new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) will replace the SSN-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) on the new Medicare cards for Medicare transactions.

“We’re taking this step to protect our seniors from fraudulent use of Social Security numbers which can lead to identity theft and illegal use of Medicare benefits,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. Personal identity theft affects a large and growing number of seniors. People age 65 or older are increasingly the victims of this type of crime. Incidents among seniors increased to 2.6 million from 2.1 million between 2012 and 2014, according to the most current statistics from the Department of Justice.

Under the new system, for each person enrolled in Medicare, the CMS will assign a new MBI and mail a new Medicare card.

As the CMS's website explains, the new cards will use a unique, randomly-assigned number called an MBI to replace the Social Security-based HICN currently used on the Medicare card. Beneficiaries will be instructed to safely and securely destroy their current Medicare cards and keep the new MBI confidential. The MBI is private like the SSN and should be protected as Personally Identifiable Information.

CMS will begin mailing new cards in April 2018 and will meet the congressional deadline for replacing all Medicare cards by April 2019.  The CMS will have a transition period where you can use either the HICN or the MBI to exchange data for Medicare transactions. The transition period will begin no earlier than April 1, 2018 and run through December 31, 2019.

As outlined by Eileen Ambrose of AARP, here is what you need to know about the new Medicare cards:
* The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin mailing the cards to beneficiaries in April 2018.
* The cards will automatically be mailed to all 58 million current beneficiaries. You don’t need to do anything special to receive one.
* The new cards will feature a randomly assigned Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) made up of 11 letters and numbers. Each MBI is unique, randomly generated, and the characters are "non-intelligent," which means they don't have any hidden or special meaning.
*Your benefits will not change under the new MBI.
* People with Medicare may start using their new Medicare cards and MBIs as soon as they get them.

However, remain leery of scams, warn the folks at Medicare.gov. Scam artists may try to get your current Medicare number and other personal information by contacting you about your new Medicare card. They often claim to be from Medicare and use various scams to get your Medicare Number including:
* Asking you to confirm your Medicare or Social Security Number so they can send you a new card.
* Telling you there's a charge for your new card and they need to verify your personal information.
* Threatening to cancel your health benefits if you don’t share your Medicare Number or other personal information.
If someone calls you and asks for your Medicare number or other personal information, hang up and call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

For more information on the new Medicare cards, see:

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/index.html

https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-releases/2017-Press-releases-items/2017-05-30.html

http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2017/new-medicare-cards-facts-fd.html

 

 


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Thursday, September 14, 2017

Equifax Data Breach: What You Can Do


Credit bureaus, or credit reporting agencies, are companies that collect and maintain consumer credit information then resell this information to other businesses in the form of credit reports. The three main credit reporting agencies in the U.S. are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  These agencies collect information on all your financial transactions from banks, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and other business with which you may have an account.  

Recently, however, Equifax experienced a huge security breach. Hackers managed to obtain access to the personal data of around 143 million people. The private information that was hacked includes people's social security numbers, addresses, birthdays, and credit card numbers. You’re probably a victim.

In response to the massive breach, Equifax has set up a special website that allows people to check to see if their personal information has been compromised. To find out if you may have been impacted, visit www.EquifaxSecurity2017.com, and click on the "Potential Impact" tab. You'll have to enter your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number to do so.

In an effort to appease consumers Equifax is offering one free year of credit monitoring to all Americans. After that year you will likely have to pay a monthly fee if you want to keep receiving their monitoring service, and your identifying information will continue to be at risk since we can’t know who has obtained it since the breach.
Merely getting credit monitoring, whether through Equifax’s one year offer or any of the other services available for a fee, is not enough to protect you from the risk of identify theft after this breach. Tim Herrera of the New York Times suggests a few other steps to increase your likelihood of protecting your credit and your identity:
  1. Set Up Fraud Alerts. A good first step would be to establish fraud alerts with all three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Fraud alerts notify you if someone tries to apply for credit in your name. With a fraud alert, when you or someone else attempts to open a credit account in your name, increase the credit limit on an existing account, or obtain a new card on an existing account, the lender should takes steps to verify that you have authorized the request. However, fraud alerts do not prevent third parties from viewing your credit file. Setting up fraud alerts is free, and the steps will vary depending on your banks or credit unions.

  1. Consider Credit Freezes. A credit freeze locks your credit files so that only companies you already do business with will have access to them; credit freezes block your file from being disclosed to third parties. As Ron Lieber of the New York Times explains, “. . . the bureaus are not supposed to release your credit report to any company except the ones that already have you as a customer. Why is this important? When a thief shows up with your social security number and address to apply for credit in your name, the lender will go to fetch your credit report before anything else happens. If it can’t retrieve the report because of the freeze, then no new account for the thief.”
You can thaw your freeze every time you want to apply for new credit, or you can permanently eliminate the freeze by using a personal identification number (PIN) you will get at the time you apply the freeze. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion allow consumers in any state to add, lift or remove a freeze online, by phone or by mail. If you don’t have that PIN you’ll have a heckuva time trying to thaw or remove a freeze, so this is a dangerous option if you don’t have a good safe reliable system for storing and retrieving PINs, passwords, and account info.
For WV residents (the fees vary by state) the cost is $5 for each freeze, thaw, and removal on each of your 3 credit reporting agency accounts. Equifax has said it will waive all fees until November 21, 2017 for people who want to freeze the Equifax credit files.

  1. Check Your Credit Report. Often. You are entitled to one free credit report every year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. You can access your free reports at www.annualcreditreport.com. There are lots of other websites that purport to get you the free reports, watch out for their sneaky fees. Experts advise spreading these out over the year, so that you obtain a credit report about once every four months. Carefully reviewing your credit report can help you spot suspicious activity. And, as Herrera notes, because the Equifax breach will have long-term consequences, it is a good idea to start checking your credit report as part of your regular financial routines.
For more information on the Equifax Security Breach see:





For more information on credit freezes see:
For more information on how to protect yourself see:






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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

September 28 is Good Neighbor Day

West Virginians know that being a good neighbor is important to our communities. There's also good evidence that social connection can help reduce the risk of financial exploitation in later life. On September 28 you have a great excuse to check in on a older neighbor or a neighbor with disabilities just to say Hi Neighbor! It's Good Neighbor Day, and you can download a card to take to you neighbor or get some ideas about other ways to be neighborly at wvneighbors.com.

Your good neighbor needs a good neighbor!

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