When a man with a heavy foreign accent called from Medicare, Clare Juddson tried to understand him. “He wanted information about my Medicare card, but he was very hard to understand,” said the 82-year-old Julliard graduate. “I hung up because he was unintelligible.”
But before ending the call, Juddson told the caller, who turned out to be a fraudster, to mail her a letter detailing his request.
Consumer advocates said cases like this are on the rise.
“With the new Medicare cards that are rolling out this year, we are receiving reports of phone scams where seniors are being asked to confirm their current information,” said Jenna Gladfelter, director of the Senior Medicare Patrol Program with LiveOn New York. “Unsuspecting victims give over all of their personal information, including their current Medicare number, which is their Social Security number.”
The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates that health-care fraud costs the nation about $68 billion annually, which is 3 percent of the nation's $2.26 trillion in health care spending.
As a result, new cards will no longer contain a person's Social Security number, but rather a unique, randomly assigned Medicare number that protects people's identity.
“We’re hearing about victims who are being asked by phone to pay from $5 to $700 to get the new card,” Gladfelter said at the 13th Annual Elder Abuse Conference in Manhattan. “A senior doesn’t have to do anything to initiate the process. Whenever your card is sent out, that's when you will receive it in the mail.”
Medicare cards are being mailed automatically by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to those who qualify, free of charge. The transition to the new card is expected to end in April 2019.
Gladfelter suggested that professionals such as financial advisors help their retired clients by informing them of phone scams and offering services, such as reviewing billing statements for unrecognized charges.
“You might see a wheelchair that is a fraudulent charge because your client doesn’t use a wheelchair,” Gladfelter told Financial Advisor magazine.