Category: Senior Medicare Patrol

Best practices on staying scam free over the holidays!‘Twas the month of Christmas and through many ways, scammers are plotting looking for easy paydays.Impersonation and phishing are some of their schemes. Maybe they’ll ask for your Medicare number, iexchange for winning the trip of your dreams. They could email, text or call. They could be…

Talking about scam safety during Thanksgiving gatherings. Share these tips to help keep your loved one’s fraud free! November begins the season of family get-togethers, good food, and conversations. While passing the potatoes, bring up how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from being deceived. Share these reminders and help squash the chances…

How you can protect yourself from Medicare Scams Self-defense is a valuable life skill to have. Many, however, don’t think of scam self-defense. Anestimated $7 million an hour is lost to healthcare fraud, errors or abuse. When people steal fromMedicare, it hurts us all and can be considered easy money for criminals. The October Fraud…

This month’s Fraud Fact from the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) highlights durable medical equipment (DME) scams and ways to protect yourself and Medicare dollars. Each year Medicare spends billions of dollars on DME such as braces, walkers and other gear prescribed by a doctor to aid them in things from chronic illnesses to healing…

This month’s Fraud Fact from the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) focuses on how to preventphone scams. Older adults are often a target of fraud. Scammers can be clever and convincing with rehearsedstories to catch you off guard in the attempt to get your personal information. You can help protectyourself by being current on the…

This month’s Fraud Fact from the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) focuses on how toprotect yourself from ambulance fraud. Did you know Medicare covers ambulance services? To be covered it must be medicallynecessary, the crew and ambulance must meet certain standards, and it must be the only safetransportation option to the nearest Medicare covered health…

This month’s Fraud Fact from the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) focuses on phone calls to enroll or renew Medicaid benefits. During the COVID pandemic, Medicaid eligibility and re-enrollment qualifications changed. As of April 2023, the federal Public Health Emergency required states to keep existing Medicaid recipients enrolled even if they exceeded the income level…

This month’s Fraud Fact from the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) focuses on providersoffering DNA or genetic testing to older adults and telling them that the service is free to Medicarebeneficiaries. Out-of-the-blue genetic or DNA testing is NOT free and is not routinely covered for all Medicarepatients. If an individual offers you or someone you…

Today, the Missouri Senior Medicare Patrol is sharing four tips from the National Council on Aging to protect you from scams. First, hang up on government imposters. They may call claiming to be from the IRS, Social Security, or Medicare. The phone number on caller ID may match the toll-free number for the agencies. The…

It is income tax time, and that gives the Missouri SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol) one more reason to remind you about scammers. The scam artists might be coming at you with emails, phone calls and snail mail this tax season. Be ready. The Internal Revenue Service recently warned of a surge of fraudulent emails impersonating…