The Missouri Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) empowers and assists Medicare beneficiaries to prevent, detect, and report healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education.
Missouri SMP wants to remind you of some ways you can protect yourself against the many scams targeting older adults:
Protect Your Information
Protect Yourself from Scams:
- Medicare will not call you and ask you for your information. Medicare already has your information.
- The Internal Revenue Service will not call or email you to try to collect back taxes. The IRS handles official business via mail.
- The local sheriff’s department will not call you and give you one last chance to pay up before they serve a warrant and take you to jail.
- Your bank will not phone you and ask you for information about your accounts.
It’s OK to hang up and call the bank, IRS, Medicare, or sheriff’s department if you are uncertain about a call you receive. Call a publicly available number for the agency – not a number a caller gives you.
Protect / Detect / Report:
Medicare loses an estimated $60 billion each year due to fraud, errors, and abuse. Every day, these issues affect countless beneficiaries nationwide.
The good news is that by following some simple tips, you can protect yourself against these types of scams. Remembering to protect, detect, and report helps everyone, including you and your loved ones.
If you suspect you or a loved one are the victim of Medicare fraud or abuse, call the Missouri Senior Medicare Patrol at (888) 515-6565.
This project was supported, in part by grant number 90MPPG0040, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Administration for Community Living policy.