Social Security and Medicare

Does your Social Security Medicare card contain you Social Security ID number? Mine doesn’t have the Social Security number, because the card I have was issued by the Medical group I work with.

Evidently many cards do carry your Social Security number and, as such, is subject to identity theft.

Social Security officials are calling for immediate action to remove those numbers from the Medicare cards, used by millions of Americans.

Medicare officials have resisted removal of the identity number, saying the removal would be costly and impractical.

Social Security cannot prohibit Medicare from using the number on their cards, but congress could take that action.

Inspector General of Social Security, Patrick O’Carrol l Jr. said “Displaying such information on Medicare cards unnecessarily places millions of individuals at risk for identity theft.

We do not believe a federal agency should place more value on convenience than the security of it beneficiaries’ personal information.”

Federal officials said that more than 40 million people who are 65 and older, or disabled, have Medicare cards with Social Security numbers on them.

Most private insurance companies have abandoned the use of Social Security numbers as identifiers, because many states forbid it.

Charlene Frizzera, chief operating officer of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Service, played down the risk of identity theft from the misuse of Medicare cards. “If the government suddenly issued new Medicare cards or identification numbers, she said, it could startle or alarm beneficiaries. We don’t want to scare them.”

In a memo to the heads of federal departments and agencies in May 2007, Clay Johnson III, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget said they should draw up plans to “eliminate the unnecessary collection and use of Social Security numbers within 18 months”.