CMS Medicare ID cards hit another potential snag

The CMS has signed an emergency contract agreement with West Publishing Corp., a Thomson Reuters subsidiary, to make sure that its new Medicare ID cards are going to the right beneficiaries.

The agency is mailing the new Medicare identification cards with randomly generated beneficiary identifiers in place of Social Security numbers. Approximately 60 million beneficiaries will receive the new cards by April 2019.

However, the CMS discovered in a simulation that a data vulnerability could lead to the wrong people receiving some of the ID cards, as some of the beneficiary address information the agency has may not be accurate.

“To mitigate this risk, CMS requires a contractor to perform a validation of Medicare beneficiary address information in advance of the Medicare Card mailing project,” the agency said in notice posted Friday.

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