AG warns Medicare enrollees to look out for scammers

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Medicare enrollees are being told to watch out for scammers as they wait for their new Medicare cards.

The federal government is mailing out new I.D. cards to more than 900,000 Kentucky Medicare recipients soon.

The new cards are designed to help minimize fraud by replacing Social Security numbers with 11-digit I.D. numbers.

However, the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General says it’s also triggering scam warnings across the nation.

Attorney General Andy Beshear says scammers pretending to be Center for Medicare and Medicaid employees are calling enrollees and claiming they need to provide personal and financial information or a payment in order to receive, replace or activate their new card.

Beshear says people need to know Medicare will never initiate a call and ask to verify information over the phone.

He says if you are contacted by someone claiming to be a Medicare employee asking for information, money or threatening to cancel your health benefits, hang up and report the scam to the federal government at 1-800-MEDICARE.

According to Medicare.gov, as long as an enrollee’s address is up-to-date, they do not need to do anything to receive their new card.

To update an address, visit your My Social Security account or call 800-772-1213.