Medicare Information Technology: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Needs to Pursue a Solution for Removing Social Security Numbers from Cards.

摘要

The health insurance claims number on Medicare beneficiaries' cards includes as one component the beneficiary's (or other eligible person's, such as a spouse's) SSN. This introduces risks to beneficiaries' personal information, as the number may be obtained and used to commit identity theft. Many organizations have replaced SSNs on these types of cards with alternative identifiers. However, the introduction of such a new data element into IT environments can require changes to systems that process and share data. Moreover, previous assessments of CMS's IT environment have found that it consists of many aging, 'stove-piped' systems that cannot easily share data or be enhanced; thus the agency has ongoing efforts to modernize its environment. As requested, GAO studied CMS's efforts related to the removal of SSNs from Medicare cards. GAO's objectives were to (1) assess actions CMS has taken to identify and implement IT solutions for removing SSNs from Medicare cards and (2) determine whether CMS's ongoing IT modernization initiatives could facilitate SSN removal efforts. To do this, GAO reviewed agency documentation and interviewed officials.