NCDHHS says mistakes made sending out new Medicaid cards

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — People across North Carolina got new Medicaid cards this week with the wrong information.

In some cases, they're getting the personal information of people and children they don't know in the mail.

The state sent an email to the directors of each counties social services department explaining the mistake and saying they would be sending new cards.

Nina Willis got a shock in the mail this week.

"I'm baffled why I got a card for a child that does not belong to me," she said.

Willis received a Medicaid card with a child's name, date of birth, identification number and address in Clinton, N.C.

"Who is going to fix this? I did not know if my information was stolen," she said. "I don't even know this child."

Willis said she hasn't used Medicaid in years, not since her daughter, who is now 18, was a child.

It's part of a major error from North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services, which sends new cards out each year.

On New Year's Eve, the state sent an email to county Department of Social Services offices alerting them to the mistake and promising to mail out new cards. The department asked for those affected to return the bad cards.

The Department of Health and Human Services stated Friday it determined 48,752 of these new Medicaid cards were mailed to the incorrect recipients.

DSS officials in Cabarrus County, where Willis got her card, said more than a hundred people have contacted them so far, saying they got Medicaid cards with someone else's information.

Willis is worried that her daughter's personal information may have been mailed to someone else and worries for the child whose card she received.

"It really bothers me because this child needs a card and get medical attention and it won't be able to," she said.

WSOC