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Just came across something new, at least new to me.
As you may know those who sign up for Medicare get an award letter before the card arrives. It has the effective dates for A and B, and, in the upper right corner, their Medicare claim number, or HICN. I've used that to enroll people before their card arrives.
A client just showed me his award letter and in the upper right corner is not his HICN, as in the past, but it's not his new MBI, Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, either, which is the name of the new Medicare ID numbers.
The Medicare award letter now has a BCN number, or Beneficiary Control Notice, an identifier SSA has been using for years as an alternative to putting the SSN on correspondence, but not useful for anything Medicare-enrollment related.
So, just a heads up if you've used the award letter to get a person enrolled before the Medicare card arrives; that now appears to now be a dead end.
As you may know those who sign up for Medicare get an award letter before the card arrives. It has the effective dates for A and B, and, in the upper right corner, their Medicare claim number, or HICN. I've used that to enroll people before their card arrives.
A client just showed me his award letter and in the upper right corner is not his HICN, as in the past, but it's not his new MBI, Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, either, which is the name of the new Medicare ID numbers.
The Medicare award letter now has a BCN number, or Beneficiary Control Notice, an identifier SSA has been using for years as an alternative to putting the SSN on correspondence, but not useful for anything Medicare-enrollment related.
So, just a heads up if you've used the award letter to get a person enrolled before the Medicare card arrives; that now appears to now be a dead end.
