Background   

Health plans use confidential member IDs for transactions like health care billing, eligibility status, and claim status. Individuals committing health care fraud are increasingly stealing Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) and other member IDs in various ways, such as deceiving patients, hacking into health care organizations’ systems, or misusing online lookup tools. Once member IDs are stolen, they are used to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare and other health insurance companies. This leads to financial losses and reduces trust in the healthcare system.