Avoiding Medicare-card scams

By ARTHUR VIDRO
What It’s Worth
New Hampshire and Vermont residents started receiving new Medicare cards from the federal government in July.

For these two states, the process is now supposedly complete. Nationwide, the process began in April and will be finished next April. (If you belong to Medicare but have not yet received your new card, phone the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at 1-800-633-4227 or go to medicare.gov for information.)

The key advantage to the new cards is that they no longer will contain the cardholder’s Social Security number. A half-century of using one’s Social Security number as one’s Medicare ID number has led to much sorrow, especially in the computerized age of identity theft. So the new cards should safeguard against some instances of fraud.

Yet, it seems that every government action leads to scam-artist counter-action.

Key points to remember:

There is no fee to get a new card. Anyone who calls and asks for payment so you can receive a new card is trying to con you.

The card will be sent to you automatically. Unless you have recently moved and haven’t yet notified Social Security, just sit back and wait; it will arrive.

There is no interim “temporary” card. Anyone trying to sell you one is a scam artist.

Nobody from Medicare or Social Security will phone you to ask for your Social Security number. Those purporting to do so are misrepresenting themselves and trying to steal your identity and/or money. If they say they need you to verify your number, don’t you believe it.

Anyone saying you need to “reactivate” your Social Security number is trying to con you.

There are no bonuses or rebates involved in getting a new Medicare card. Anyone who asks for your bank account number so that they can deposit a bonus or rebate is lying through their teeth.

Nobody from Medicare, no matter how friendly they sound, is going to have $200 sent to your bank account for no better reason than that you are a good citizen. It is just a ploy to get your bank account information. Do not divulge it.

And finally, please, please, please, remember that anybody who claims to be from the federal government yet demands from you a payment, for one reason or another, in gift cards is illegitimate.

Just think about it. What would happen if you tried to pay your local property tax with gift cards? Local governments don’t work that way. Neither does the federal government.