Railroad Medicare, MBI Card- Billing News

Medicare is taking steps to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards. In April 2018, people with Medicare will begin receiving new Medicare cards, replacing all cards by April 2019. These cards will have a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) number that is randomly generated with “non-intelligent” characters that do not have any hidden or special meaning. If you currently send Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) Medicare claims to the RRB Specialty Medicare Administrative Contractor, Palmetto GBA, you will notice a change with the new cards: • You will no longer be able to distinguish people with Railroad Medicare by the number on the card • The RRB will continue to send cards with the RRB logo to people with Railroad Medicare • The MAC will return a message on the eligibility transaction response for a Railroad Medicare patient. The message will say, “Railroad Retirement Medicare Beneficiary” in 271 Loop 2110C, Segment MSG. See additional source information on the new MBI format.

Source: https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/FFSProvPartProg/Downloads/2017-06-22-eNews.pdf