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CMS to accept partial Social Security Numbers in Medicare Secondary Payer cases

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Starting next year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will allow payers in Medicare Secondary Payer cases to identify claimants with partial, rather than full, Social Security numbers.

The Medicare Secondary Payer Act requires self-insured employers and insurers to act as primary payers for workers comp and liability claims involving Medicare beneficiaries. Payers must report settlements, judgments, awards and other payments to CMS when claimants are eligible to receive Medicare.

Medicare Secondary Payer experts say claimants often are reluctant to provide full Social Security Numbers that are used to identify whether they have received Medicare benefits that must be repaid.

As of Jan. 5, 2015, CMS will allow payers to identify claimants with the last five digits of their Social Security Numbers, rather than the full nine-digit number, according to a Sept. 10 memo. In addition to providing the partial number, payers would need to provide CMS with a claimant's first initial, last name, date of birth and gender.