Medicare Card Scams: Nobody Legitimate Will Call You for Your Number
Callers offering new plastic or metal Medicare cards are after your number. Here is how to replace a card the real way, for free.
At a Glance
In this guide (6 steps):
- 1.Never give your Medicare number to an incoming caller
- 2.Replace a lost card yourself, for free, at Medicare.gov
- 3.Or call 1-800-MEDICARE and let them look you up
- 4.Turn down offers of free braces, tests, or supplies
- 5.Check your Medicare Summary Notice for claims you do not recognize
- 6.Report suspected fraud
Never give your Medicare number to an incoming caller
~22sWarning
Guard the Medicare number as carefully as a Social Security number. It can be used to bill fraudulent claims in your name.
Replace a lost card yourself, for free, at Medicare.gov
~23sQuick Tip
Quick Tip: If you have not set up a Medicare.gov account, you can create one with your Medicare number, date of birth, and ZIP code.
Or call 1-800-MEDICARE and let them look you up
~15sTurn down offers of free braces, tests, or supplies
~15sCheck your Medicare Summary Notice for claims you do not recognize
~15sReport suspected fraud
~15sYou Did It!
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Every year, callers tell Medicare beneficiaries that a new card is being issued — plastic, metal, chipped, upgraded — and that they need to confirm the current Medicare number before the new one can be mailed. There is no new card. There has been no card redesign since Medicare replaced Social Security numbers with the current Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, and that change was announced by mail, not by phone.
The Medicare number is the target because it functions as a key. With it, a dishonest provider can bill Medicare for equipment, tests, or services you never received. Those false claims can also use up benefits you may genuinely need later, and unwinding them takes months.
Related versions of the call offer a free knee brace, back brace, diabetic supplies, genetic cancer screening, or a COVID or flu test kit — all "covered by Medicare — we only need your number to bill it." The offer of something free is the bait; the number is the point.
Medicare does not call beneficiaries out of the blue to ask for the Medicare number. Medicare already has it. Neither do Social Security or a legitimate insurer. Anyone who calls asking you to confirm it is not who they say they are, no matter how much other information about you they seem to already know.
If you actually need to replace a lost or damaged card, it is free and you do it yourself — through your account at Medicare.gov or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
(Sources: Medicare.gov; Federal Trade Commission consumer advice — consumer.ftc.gov; AARP Fraud Watch Network — aarp.org)
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