Have you heard of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015? In an effort to combat identity theft, Medicare and the Railroad Retirement Board will mail out new Medicare cards with a new Medicare number beginning in April of next year (2018). The new number will have both numbers and letters. Instead of being your social security number as it is currently for most people, it might look something like this: “1EG4-TE5-MK73”