New resource for those with questions about new Medicare card

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to prepare for next year’s release of a new Medicare identification card for beneficiaries. Part of that preparation includes appointing an official charged with working with physicians and other health care workers on any questions or concerns they have with the change.

Eugene Freund, MD, has been named provider ombudsman for the Medicare Card. He has been a medical officer with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since at least 2008, previously serving in the HHS Office of Communications and the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.

Freund will be the contact point for physicians, hospitals, suppliers, and others who experience implementation problems with the new cards and relay those comments to other parts of CMS to try and get those problems fixed. He will also be responsible with explaining the program to providers who call with questions. To reach the ombudsman’s office, email NMCProviderQuestions@cms.hhs.gov.

Note, if Medicare beneficiaries or their caregivers have concerns, they get an ombudsman of their own. You can point your Medicare patients to medicare.gov to find out how the Medicare beneficiary ombudsman can help them.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians