Protecting Medicare Recipients from Identity Theft
Identity theft has become a huge problem in the United States and throughout the world, and it is getting worse. It seems that every day we hear about a new way that fraudsters have figured out to get pertinent information about us that they can use to purchase anything from a car to a home to illegal drugs.
Through the years, Medicare cards have displayed the individual’s name and Social Security number front and center, as well as other information that could help identity thieves to get your information and use it.
It is interesting that Medicare is finally getting around to doing this. Insurance companies and other organizations have begun doing this years ago, and when you talk to most places such as banks, insurance companies, the power company or others on the phone, they only ask for the last 4 digits of your Social Security number and they only have access to those four digits unless they are in a specific department.
More care is being taken to protect our privacy and a substantial part of that protection comes with protecting our Social Security numbers. The Social Security Number Protection Act has been proposed to Congress as a critical issue that needs to be addressed now. The senators who proposed the action have said that the Federal Government should be taking the lead in this area, not lagging behind. They are asking that the removal of Social Security numbers be mandated and that the unnecessary use of Social Security numbers be eliminated.
It is, of course, impossible to eliminate the use of Social Security numbers in many instances, however, there is a difference between using the numbers and going out of the way to protect people’s identity, as opposed to using the numbers and basically flaunting them or leaving them in plain sight as a temptation and easy road to fraud for identity thieves.
With 8.4 million people victims of identity theft last year alone, this is a critical issue. The legislation would give CMS a limited amount of time to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards, correspondence and unencrypted information. This should give Medicare recipients some peace of mind.
