I Lost My ID Card – What Now?

Your health insurance card contains a lot of important data about you, your policy number, group number, amount of co-payment for doctor’s visits, where to submit insurance claims and the dates of which you are covered for services. If you have lost or misplaced your identification card, you should notify your insurance company as quickly as possible so that another card can be issued to you. Until you receive your newly issued health insurance ID card, your healthcare provider will have to contact your insurance company directly in order to verify coverage.

Contacting Your Insurance Provider

When you realize that your health insurance card is lost or misplaced, reach out to your insurance company as quickly as possible. It could take up to three weeks for the company to issue another card to you, but contacting your insurance company prevents other people from fraudulently using your previous card in order to receive services.

Reporting the lost card will cause the insurance company to deactivate your identification number that is listed on your card, thus preventing the unauthorized use of your ID by others. Typically, your insurance company’s contact information is listed on your ID card. However, if the card is lost, you may not have access to that information. In this case, it is suggested to locate a previous statement or bill and use the contact information listed therein to reach out to the insurance company to report your lost ID card. Typically, insurance companies list their toll-free telephone number for cases such as misplaced cards, but if it’s not on your recent statement, you may use the internet to search for this information.

In addition, some insurance companies provide online forms to fill out in case you have lost your health insurance ID card. You may be required to submit your name and other personal information in order to report the card as lost and request a replacement card through the mail.

Waiting For Your New ID Card

Once you have contacted your insurance company to report your lost card and request a replacement, the waiting begins. The insurance company may take up to three weeks in order to issue you a replacement card, so any services rendered during that time will require your medical provider’s office to contact your insurance company to verify coverage. Your medical provider will not be able to verify coverage using your old identification number because it will be deactivated once you’ve requested a new card. Inform your physician’s office that you are waiting for a new ID card so that they are able to bill your insurance company directly and obtain the accurate co-payment amount when the services are rendered.

When scheduling doctor’s appointments, be sure to advise the receptionist that while you do have adequate coverage, you have reported your insurance ID as lost and are waiting to receive another card. They may ask you to provide the name of your insurance company, along with your date of birth and Social Security Number in order to verify that coverage exists.

After you’ve received your new health insurance card, contact each of the medical providers that you have seen for medical care in the interim to advise them of your new identification number. This will clear up any possible issues created as a result of your previously lost card. Even though you have provided them with your personal data, you still want to ensure that you don’t receive a bill that should be directed toward your insurance company. When making any appointments in the future, bring your new insurance card with you so that your medical provider’s office can make copies of the card for their medical records.

It is important to always let your insurance provider know as soon as you have lost your insurance card. This prevents any sort of interruptions in your medical coverage and keeps your medical provider from sending a bill to your home as opposed to the insurance company. If you have any questions about how to go about reporting a lost card or how to get a replacement card, contact your insurance company directly.