Friday, March 23, 2018

New Medicare cards start getting delivered in April

Knowing that your new paper Medicare card will be coming to your mailbox in April or later also means it’s important to protect it once it arrives.

new medicare card image
Your free card will have a different account number unrelated your Social Security Number.  The unique, randomly assigned number is called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI).

You will need to notify your medical providers of the change at your next appointments to update their records. The change in the Medicare account number does not affect Medicare benefits or other insurance accounts.

The account numbers are being changed to reduce identity fraud.

Remember, neither the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services nor the Social Security Administration will call or email you about your new card or account number or other benefits.

If you receive such a contact, hang up or delete the email.  It’s from a scammer who wants to steal your new account information and your identity. 

You can learn about the new card at https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/your-medicare-card.html.

If you suspect you’ve been victimized, call West Virginia Senior Legal Aid at 800-229-5068 to speak with a staff attorney. If you are a West Virginia resident who is age 60 or older, you are eligible for this free service. You must call yourself, not have someone else do it, to discuss the situation.

And don’t forget to destroy your current Medicare card (cut it into multiple pieces) when you have the new one in hand.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Important changes regarding online access to WV healthcare directive forms

The WV Center for End-of-Life Care has been defunded and will cease operations before the end of March 2018. Their excellent website has been the best source for information and forms for advance healthcare directives in West Virginia including the Medical Power of Attorney and Living Will. The Center has been the driving force for policy in our state regarding surrogate healthcare decisionmaking and planning, and has made West Virginia a leader across the country in this area. We at WVSLA are sad about the Center's demise, the loss of these valuable resources including the great staff at the Center, and are concerned about the future development of policy and resources in the vital and changing area of end-of-life decisionmaking.

The future of the E-Registry is uncertain. The e-registry was a real innovation, one of the first in the nation, and had (perhaps still has?) the potential to dramatically enhance the likelihood that your advance healthcare choices get respected. It is an electronic database available free to patients and providers. You could voluntarily upload your completed directives to the database and only participating providers with HIPAA access to your medical records could access your directives. Even if you carefully made thoughtful choices, talked to your agents and family and informed them about your values and wishes, and properly executed the appropriate documents if those documents can't be found by the right providers in the critical moments your choices could go unfulfilled. A good e-registry used properly could make fill that gap. We hope the e-registry finds a new home and continues to improve.

Meanwhile, here are a few takeaways about this news:

- you can still access the information and documents from the old WV End of Life Center at the WV Center for Health Ethics and Law http://wvethics.org/advance-directives-forms-and-laws/,

- the law has not changed, the West Virginia Health Care Decisions Act, WV Code §16-30-1, et seq. has not been affected by the Center's closure,

- your Medical Power of Attorney, Living Will, POST, or other documents that were previously and properly executed are still valid,

- now is a good time to review your documents and make sure they reflect your current wishes and that your chosen representative(s) are still able and willing to act. It is important to periodically review your documents to account for changes in your wishes and circumstances,

- you should not rely on the e-registry at this point as the only way for providers to access your directives. A photocopy of your properly-executed document is as valid as the signed original, and your providers need to have a copy of your document in order to be able to implement what it contains. Now is the time to verify that your treating providers have your current documents on file,

- the future of policy development in end-of-life decisionmaking in our state is uncertain, and now is the time for West Virginians who care about these issues to let lawmakers know what is important.

If you are at least 60 years old and a West Virginian with questions about healthcare decisionmaking and planning you can talk to an attorney for free at WV Senior Legal Aid by calling us at 1-800-229-5068.