Millions of MSNs are undeliverable: Are you getting yours?

By Jason B. Echols, health care consumer protection coordinator with AgeOptions

[February 26, 2014]  OAK PARK — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General recently released a report that over 4 million Medicare Summary Notices, or MSNs, were undeliverable to Medicare beneficiaries in 2012. The most common reason why the notices were undeliverable is because of incorrect or invalid beneficiary addresses. You can read the full report here: https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-03-12-00600.asp.

This report identifies MSNs as an important fraud-fighting tool, but an MSN is useless if beneficiaries either do not receive or do not read it. If you or someone you know is not getting your MSN, here is what you can do:

1. Be sure your address is correct with Social Security. Medicare pulls your address information from Social Security, so updating your address with Social Security will update your address with Medicare. You can update your address with Social Security by calling 1-800-772-1213.

2. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to request a past MSN be mailed to you. They can also help correct your mailing address.

3. Visit MyMedicare.gov and log in to your personal account to view past MSNs and current claims. If you are not receiving your MSN in the mail or if you want to view claims earlier, this website is available for all Medicare beneficiaries.

And if you do get your MSN but do not read it, it is not useful. Check out the "How to Read an Medical Summary Notice" tip sheet at http://www.ageoptions.org/documents/
HowToReadMSNJune2013.pdf.

[By JASON B. ECHOLS, health care consumer protection coordinator, AgeOptions]