Medicare Beneficiaries to be Carded

Talk Ten Tuesdays

Medicare beneficiaries will soon be receiving from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) new identification cards—cards that will use a unique and what CMS describes as a "randomly-assigned number" called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). The new number replaces the Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN). The new cards, scheduled to be mailed next month, are designed to help combat identity theft and fraud. Reporting our lead story is author, educator,d and consultant Duane Abbey, PhD, president of Abbey and Abbey Consultants, Inc.

Other segments featured in this episode include:

• News Desk: Lorraine Martinez returns to report on how patients and hospitals are coping since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico six months ago.
  
• Dateline Washington: Talk Ten Tuesdays legislative analyst Rhonda Taller reports the latest news coming out of Washington, D.C. Rhonda is a member of the HIMSS professional development committee.
  
• Coding Report: Senior healthcare coding educator and consultant Laurie Johnson continues her reporting on the outcome of the recent ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee.
  
• Billing Report: Holly Louie, past president of the Healthcare Business and Management Association (HBMA) and compliance officer for Practice Management Inc., a multi-specialty billing company in Boise, Idaho, describes her frustrations in dealing with CMS and the Medicare Administrative Contractors on their contrary directives.
  
• TalkBack: Co-host Dr. Erica Remer explains why, in her opinion, coders are the last line of defense for making the right DRG choice.

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