How to report and avoid Medicare fraud

As the kids would say, "That's lower than whale poop, and that's at the bottom of the ocean."

That's how I feel about scammers that are raking in money with the myriad of frauds perpetrated on the public.

They fall into several categories:

"You won a prize! Just pay the taxes and fees first to receive your prize." The person who is targeted is told that payment can be made through purchase of gift cards or money sent to them directly from their bank account.

"You have a computer virus – security is compromised!" You're told of a virus in your computer, but if you log on and put in the scammer's code he or she will have access to your computer and all of your files.

Calls from purported health care companies or individuals who identify themselves as from Medicare, your doctor or pharmacy. The goal is to get your Medicare number to either mail you unnecessary medical supplies, order unnecessary testing or generate fraudulent bills to Medicare. In my last column I shared a troubling story about a local physician's mother who had this problem. It's a mess.

A person calls purporting to be with a law enforcement agency and says your Social Security number has been used in a crime. They ask you to verify it by providing the number. Then they can steal your identity.

Scammers say your credit card or bank account have been compromised, or there was an error on a bill. These scammers can get very creative.

Phony charities: The American Association of Retired Persons reported two scams requesting gift cards to fund grants for veterans in Shasta County.

I recently interviewed a client whose dear friend was the victim of several of these scams to the tune of over $100,000. It's heartbreaking to see someone's life savings stolen. The individual is a lovely person with a generous and trusting heart.

If you believe a fraud has been committed, in the case of cyber crimes including internet fraud, an IC3 report can be filed with the FBI at www.ic3.gov/Home/EF by either the victim or someone else on their behalf.

AARP has one of the best sites to get more information about protecting yourself from fraud at https://bit.ly/3De5Ll6. It explains how to set up financial and computer guard rails to protect individuals.

An additional problem with scammers is they jeopardize legitimate programs like the Shasta Community Health Center's new Chronic Care Management program. It sets up a medical care manager to work with individuals on their health conditions. The difference in this situation is the patient initiates the call and can identify the individual with whom they are working. These are not "out of the blue" calls.

Medicare now requires that your physician ask if you have an advanced directive, instructions regarding what is to be done if you have a serious health issue. None of us want to believe we will be unable to be independent or could be compromised mentally, but it's much better to plan in advance than be required to react in a crisis situation.

A good place to start for help is the National Institute on Aging's website at https://bit.ly/3qq1mbg.

Margaret Beck has been a licensed insurance broker since 1978. Call her at 530-225-8583.

Insurance Insights

Margaret Beck

Guest columnist