RALEIGH -- North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey advises senior citizens to contact Medicare, either by phone or online, to check on the status of their new card if they have not received one yet.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finished a round of mailing out new cards to North Carolinians. The Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) and North Carolina Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) encourage Medicare beneficiaries who haven't received their new card to contact CMS by:

Signing into MyMedicare.gov to see if your card has been mailed. If so, you can print out an official card. You'll need to create an account if you don't already have one.

Calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), where CMS will verify your identity, check your address, and help you get your new card.

The new cards will no longer have the beneficiary's Social Security number. Instead, it will have a new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) consisting of both numbers and letters.

"Having Social Security numbers removed from Medicare cards helps fight identity theft and will protect your medical and financial information," Commissioner Causey said.

SHIIP and SMP remind people with Medicare that they can still get care using either their former Social Security number or their new MBI for all Medicare transactions through Dec. 31, 2019.

For more information about Medicare, including open enrollment, please call SHIIP at 855-408-1212.