Medicare.gov Ignores Security Problem Loses Disabled Woman’s Identity

January 5, 2010 · Posted in problem solving · 2 Comments

Marjorie, a disabled 51 year old woman, lost her identity and she doesn’t even know it yet. Her data was mixed with another person’s data. Worse than just losing her identity, Medicare caused the loss and failed to fix it when told of the problem.

My mother receives Social Security, and is on Medicare Part A, B, C and D. She was setting up her online access to her Part C. These programs each have a separate online account even though all of it is overseen by Medicare and linked to Social Security. So she has a minimum of three online accounts and possibly five depending on which Part D plan she receives. Naturally she forgot the login information for one of the accounts.

My mother went to the www.Medicare.gov web site tried to login and was frustrated so she clicked the “Forgot Password” button. She entered her SignInID and Secret word. She changed her password and a confirmation email was sent to her registered email account. No problem, right? WRONG!!!

My mother changed the password and logged on but it said the account belonged to a woman named Marjorie who lives in another state. When my mother logged in she got Marjorie’s account with all of her medical data. Read more