New Medicare Card Replacement Initiative

On November 20, 2017, MLTC is making changes to the Medicaid Client Eligibility Verification option via the internet, the Nebraska Medicaid Eligibility System (NMES) via telephone, and the 270/271 Eligibility Benefit Inquiry and Response standard electronic transaction. Medicare Health Insurance Claim Numbers will no longer be provided through any of these interfaces. Providers will be required to follow up with patients and/or Medicare as the system of record in order to obtain a Medicare claim number for any patient. Section 501 of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) requires CMS to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare ID cards and replace existing Medicare Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) with a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). The MBI will be a randomly generated identifier that will not include a social security number or any personally identifiable information (PII). States are required to be fully compliant with this legislation and make appropriate changes to policies and systems prior to CMS distributing new Medicare cards beginning April 2018.