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Medicare Fraud Costs Taxpayers Billions

Apr 15, 2024 | Scam Watch

Medicare scams illustration

The vast business of health care is a major lure for scammers, and Medicare officials recently cautioned beneficiaries to protect themselves from a wide variety of medical frauds.

According to Medicare, common examples of health care fraud include:

  • Doctors who charge Medicare for services or supplies that they never provided. Or doctors who bill the government twice for a treatment that was only provided one time. Taxpayers end up footing the bill.
  • Crooks who get hold of the number on your Medicare card. They then use it to make phony Medicare claims – under your name. In one version of this scam, a company offers free medical equipment or services as a way to get hold of the victim’s Medicare number.
  • Insurance companies that offer cash or prizes in return for joining a Medicare prescription drug plan. Shady companies have also been known to warn consumers they will lose Medicare benefits unless they sign up for a particular prescription drug plan.

In one recent scam, the Washington Post reported that Medicare was investigating $2 billion in fraudulent insurance claims for catheters submitted to the government by seven companies. And that fraud represents just one type of medical equipment. Officially, the cost of Medicare fraud is estimated to be  $60 billion, though some analysts have pegged the price tag at $100 billion or even more.

In a March email to beneficiaries, Medicare suggested that people take three steps to protect themselves from scams:

  1. Do not respond to calls, texts or emails asking for your Medicare Number. Only share the number with health care providers and other trusted sources.
  2. Carefully review claims statements you receive from the Medicare program. If a statement lists a product you did not ask for or a service you did not receive, that may be a sign of fraud.
  3. “Guard your Medicare card like it’s a credit card,” the email advised. Scammers are after the personal information that identifies you on the card.

If you see signs of a scam, contact Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).