Be Advised: Medicare ID Card Changes Are Moving Forward

Be Advised: Medicare ID Card Changes Are Moving Forward

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ plan to transition from a Social Security number-based ID system to a randomly generated identifier is moving forward. The agency won’t start mailing new cards until April 2018, and the whole process will take nearly 2 years to complete, but in the meantime CMS is rolling out a provider- and patient-awareness campaign to assure the transition is as smooth as possible. The new Medicare beneficiary identifier (MBI) will …

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Healthcare is Top U.S. Cost Concern—Over Tax Increases, Military Spending

Healthcare is Top U.S. Cost Concern—Over Tax Increases, Military Spending

We’ve seen lots of data indicating that patients worry about being able to afford good healthcare for themselves and their families. Those concerns go beyond the household budget, though: A new study shows that citizens are more concerned about domestic healthcare costs than any other financial issue. In fact, “healthcare costs” were named by nearly twice as many people as Social Security benefits, which was the second most mentioned concern (31% vs 16%), followed by …

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