MASSDEVICE ON CALL — More than 280,000 Medicare beneficiaries have been victims of identity theft, but the federal healthcare program is doesn’t have the resources to issue new IDs, according to a report.

Those with compromised IDs, which are tied to a beneficiaries social security number, have little recourse but to report unauthorized use of their IDs.

"Medicare officials say it’s too expensive and too many agencies are involved to reissue those numbers to patients victimized by identity theft," according to a report by USA Today.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn’t have the authority to issue a new social security number to a Medicare identity theft patients, the paper noted.

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