CMS-40B. Justification of Non-material change

Non-substantive Change Request for 0938-1230

Background

Since the inception of the Medicare program in 1965, CMS and its program stakeholders [e.g., health care providers, Social Security Administration (SSA), Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), State Medicaid programs, payers, and researchers] have used a Social Security Number (SSN)- based identifier when filing and processing all Medicare claims and when exchanging data related to the Medicare program. This identifier, referred to as the Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN), is displayed on beneficiaries’ Medicare cards and consists of an individual’s SSN along with a supplemental code.

On April 16, 2015, President Obama signed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015. Section 501 of this legislation prohibits inclusion of SSNs on Medicare cards and specifically states that “The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Commissioner of Social Security, shall establish cost-effective procedures to ensure that a Social Security account number (or derivative thereof) is not displayed, coded, or embedded on the Medicare card issued to an individual who is entitled to benefits under part A of title XVIII or enrolled under part B of title XVIII and that any other identifier displayed on such card is not identifiable as a Social Security account number (or derivative thereof).”

MACRA requires CMS to remove SSNs from all Medicare cards by April 2019. A new randomly generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) will replace the SSN-based HICN on the new Medicare cards for Medicare transactions like billing, eligibility status, and claim status.

These changes were already approved by OMB on February 13, 2018. However, the incorrect version of the document was uploaded with the submission. This non-substantive change request seeks to correct that oversight and put the correct version the CMS-40B on file.

Changes to the Form CMS-40B

2013 (old version)	2018 (new version)	Type of Change	Reason for Change	Burden Change
Page 1 - Social Security Claim Number	Medicare Number	Rev	Terminology change for consistent terminology for the new Medicare number as part of the statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.	No
Page 2, Section 1 - Social Security Claim Number	Medicare Number	Rev	Terminology change for consistent terminology for the new Medicare number as part of the statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.	No
Page 2, Section 2 - Beneficiary Identification Code (BIC)	N/A BIC was removed.	Rev	Terminology change for consistent terminology for the new Medicare number as part of the statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.	No
Page 4, Section 1 - Beneficiariy Identification Code (BIC)	N/A Remove BIC	Rev	Terminology change for consistent terminology for the new Medicare number as part of the statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.	No
Page 4, Section 1 - Social Security Claim Number	Medicare Number	Rev	Terminology change for consistent terminology for the new Medicare number as part of the statutory requirement under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.	No