The Center of Medicare & Medicaid has announced its plan to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare ID cards. Social Security numbers have been used as the beneficiary identifier for administering services. But the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act requires CMS to remove Social Security numbers from Medicare cards because of identity theft and fraud risks. Medicare cards with a new ID number will be issued to approximately 60 million people. Notification of the changes will be sent out around January 2018. New cards will be mailed out by January of 2019