New Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) Get It, Use It
An article was reissued on August 19, 2019, to show that all new Medicare cards have been mailed, to encourage providers to use MBIs now to protect patients’ identities, to emphasize that providers must use MBIs beginning January 1, 2020, and to explain the rejection codes providers will get if they submit a HICN after January 1, 2020.
Do not wait. Update your patients’ records and use Medicare Beneficiary identifiers (MBIs) now, before you are busy with other patient insurance changes in January.
We encourage people with Medicare to carry their cards with them since we removed the Social Security Number-based number; if your patients do not bring their Medicare cards with them:
- Give them the Get Your New Medicare Card flyer in English (or Spanish).
- Use your Medicare Administrative Contractor’s look-up tool. Sign up for the Portal to use the tool.
- Check the remittance advice. Until December 2019, we return the MBI on the remittance advice for every claim with a valid and active Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN).
Starting January 1, you must use MBIs to bill Medicare regardless of the date of service:
- We will reject claims submitted with HICNs with a few exceptions
- We will reject all eligibility transactions submitted with HICNs
See the MLN Matters Article for answers to your questions on using MBIs.