The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that Medicare patients will begin receiving new Medicare cards as of April 1st 2018. The mailings will be staggered over the next 12 months with all Medicare patients receiving their new cards by April 2019.
The new cards will contain an 11 digit ID number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). This will replace the ID number that was on previous Medicare cards. Medicare will accept both numbers for a short time period to accommodate the transition. Be sure to check with your EMR system and clearing house that they are ready to accept new digits.