Call your plan. If you have an error on your Medicare Part D or Medicare Advantage plan's Member ID card, please call the toll-free telephone number printed on the card (or found on your plan's paper documents or correspondence) and speak with one of your plan's Member Services representative. The representative can correct the a misspelling of your name or any other wrong information and issue you a new Member ID card.
Medicare ID card vs. your Medicare Part D plan's Member ID card
If you have an error on your Medicare card issued by the government (rather than your plan's Member ID card), you can contact the Social Security Administration
(1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) during operating hours, Monday
through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and speak with a SSA representative.
You can also visit your local Social
Security office for personal assistance (here is a link to help you locate a Social Security
office in your area: https://www.ssa.gov/locator).
Important: Your
Medicare card will be mailed to you at the address on file with Social
Security and should arrive in the mail in about 30 days - so please verify your mailing address when speaking with Social Security and be sure that the Social Security Administration has your correct address on file.
Online option from Social Security
You can also apply online for a new Medicare card using the Social Security Administrations, "My Social Security" site: https://secure.ssa.gov/RIL/SiView.action First time users will will need to create a login to use the site. As noted on the site:
- Once you are logged in to your account, select the "Replacement Documents" tab.
- Then select "Mail my replacement Medicare Card."
- Your Medicare card will arrive in the mail in about 30 days at the address on file with Social Security.
Can't Wait 30 days for a new Medicare card?
As
noted by Medicare, "[i]f you need proof that you have Medicare sooner
than 30 days, you can request a letter from Social Security. The letter
will arrive in the mail in about
10 days." [emphasis
added]
If you need proof of your Medicare coverage immediately, please
visit your local Social Security Office. Again, here is a link for finding
your local Social Security office:(https://www.ssa.gov/locator)
Online Medicare card option from Medicare
You
can also order a new Medicare Card online through your https://MyMedicare.gov
account. For a replacement Medicare card, select the “Click here to
request a Replacement Medicare Card” link.
Again, as noted by
Medicare: Remember that "replacement Medicare cards can only be sent to
the address of record on file with Social Security. Please make sure
that the address on the "My Account" page is the person’s current
address before requesting a replacement Medicare card.
For protection, the person won’t be able to order a replacement card if one has been ordered in the last 30 days."
As reference, please see:
https://faq.ssa.gov/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=34019&task=knowledge&questionID=3708
https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/your-medicare-card.html
Reminder about your "new" Medicare ID card
Staring in 2018 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
issued new Medicare ID cards and your old Medicare Claim Number (or
Health Insurance Claim Number, HICN) has been replaced with a new
Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). All new Medicare ID cards with the MBI should have been received by the fall of 2019.
Your MBI has 11 characters and an example would be “1EG4-TE5-MK73”.
Please note that your old HICN can also have up to 11-digits.
As noted by Medicare, you would use the Medicare Beneficiary Identifier
(MBI) the same way you use the "old" Medicare Health Insurance Claim
Number (HICN).
So you would put the MBI in the same field where you have always put the 11-digit HICN.
For more information, you can read about the new Medicare cards in our article here:
Q1News.com/628 and in our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) here:
Q1FAQ.com/707