July 23, 2018

Contact: CMS Media Relations

(202) 690-6145 | CMS Media Inquiries

New Medicare cards to beneficiaries in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began mailing the new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont. Beneficiaries and other stakeholders will continue to be directed to important mailing information on Medicare.gov and MyMedicare.gov.

Also, we are announcing the end of mailing new cards to people who live in Wave 2 states and territories: Alaska, American Samoa, California, Guam, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon.

The new Medicare cards no longer contain a person’s Social Security number, but rather a unique, randomly-assigned Medicare number that protects the identities of people with Medicare, reduces fraud, and offers better safeguards of important health and financial information. As soon as people receive their new Medicare card, they should safely and securely destroy their old Medicare card and keep their new Medicare number confidential.

For a full list of the mailing waves and updates, please see CMS’ campaign page mailing map: https://www.medicare.gov/newcard/

·         Wave 4 states will show “mailing now”

·         Wave 3 states will continue to show “mailing now”

·         Wave 2 states will flip to “finished mailing” 

To view stakeholder resources, visit New Medicare card outreach & education page: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/New-Medicare-Card/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach-and-education.html

Destroy your card video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf9q0dVinF8