Financial Crimes

Medicare Fraud

More and more cases of Medicare fraud are reported every year as scammers continue to find new ways to cheat people out of their money. The majority of these scammers are not actually part of the Medicare industry, but there are some instances of fraudulent activities performed by actual healthcare professionals.

Fraudulent charges

The most common inside scam is for doctors to create phony charges for services that were never actually rendered, drugs that were not prescribed or delivered or extra fees that are tacked on to medical bills. Unsuspecting victims have paid hundreds and even thousands of extra dollars for these erroneous charges.

One of the worst cases of this type of fraud involves medical professionals allowing mentally ill patients to be bribed with items such as cigarettes or candy to get them to agree to unnecessary treatments. This scam is directed towards Medicare itself as they are responsible for paying for these services, but the patients can be made to suffer as well by being put through procedures and experiments that they do not even need.

Phony Medicare representatives

Con artists posing as Medicare agents have bilked citizens out of millions of dollars. One way they do this is to go to the homes of the elderly and claim that they need to review personal information regarding their healthcare plan. The scammers can then collect private data from these people including their social security numbers, banking information and even credit card numbers. After receiving this information, they are often able to steal all the money these senior citizens had and leave them penniless.

Scammers claiming to be Medicare officials will also call people at home and claim they need to enroll people into some new plan for their benefit. They may request credit card information in order to pay a small enrollment fee, and then use the cards to make personal purchases.

Avoiding Medicare fraud

In order to protect your identity and finances, never give anyone who calls or comes to your home any personal information related to your Medicare account or any other financial or private data. Genuine representatives from Medicare will never come to your home and request this information. Only divulge your Medicare account number or other details when you are at a reputable healthcare facility.

Con artists will take advantage of people in any way they can, even the sick, elderly and mentally ill. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies wok hard to put a stop to Medicare Fraud. If you, or anyone you know has been victimized by one of these scams, report it immediately to Medicare officials as well as the proper authorities.