U.S. Medicaid Member / Recipient ID

Detects labelled U.S. Medicaid member or recipient identification numbers. Medicaid ID formats are not standardised nationally — they vary by state in length and composition (typically 8-12 alphanumeric characters) — so this pattern anchors on an explicit Medicaid/recipient context label immediately preceding the ID rather than on a fixed structure.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: high
Confidence justification: High confidence: the ID must be immediately preceded by an explicit Medicaid or recipient label, so a bare alphanumeric string will not match. The label requirement compensates for the unconstrained, state-varying ID structure.
Jurisdictions: us
Regulations: HIPAA, State Breach Laws (US), CCPA/CPRA
Frameworks: ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2
Data categories: phi, health
Scope: narrow
Risk rating: 8
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

\b(?:medicaid|recipient)\s+(?:id|number|no\.?)[\s:#]{0,8}[A-Z0-9]{8,12}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

medicaid, recipient, member ID, beneficiary, health plan, managed care, eligibility, state health, CIN, coverage

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

Medicaid ID: AB12345678 — Labelled Medicaid ID, alphanumeric body
Recipient Number 9081726354 — Recipient number label with 10-digit body
medicaid no. 12345678ABCD — Lowercase label with abbreviated "no." and 12-char body

Should not match

Member ID: AB12345678 — "Member" alone is not a Medicaid/recipient context label
Medicaid number: 1234567 — Body too short (7 chars, below the 8-char minimum)
The recipient confirmed receipt of the Medicaid enrollment letter — Prose mentioning Medicaid and recipient but with no ID value

Known false positives

Order numbers, claim numbers, or internal reference codes that happen to follow a "recipient number" label in a non-healthcare shipping or correspondence context. Mitigation: Require corroborative Medicaid/health-plan keywords within the proximity window to confirm a healthcare eligibility context rather than logistics or general correspondence.
Sample or template documents using placeholder Medicaid IDs in onboarding material. Mitigation: Check for placeholder markers (example, xxxx, 00000000) and require co-occurring patient identifiers.