From BBB Serving Greater Cleveland
The arrival of the holiday season signals open enrollment for Medicare and other marketplace healthcare plans offered under the Affordable Care Act.
Better Business Bureau® Serving Greater Cleveland (BBB®) is alerting consumers to Medicare scammers and other unscrupulous individuals marketing themselves as healthcare plan providers. Confusion surrounding government programs often gives scammers ample opportunity to mislead victims. Each year, BBB Scam TrackerSM receives reports about consumers receiving phone calls from individuals claiming to be a “health care benefits advocate” or working with Medicare. Scammers often use enticing claims of offering a better, cheaper program or threats of discontinued services. Once consumers provide their personal information, it opens them up to identity theft and future fraud.
A woman from North Olmsted reported to BBB in early November that she was the recipient of one of these phone calls. She told BBB that “I received a call from someone claiming to be the Department of Medicaid. They asked for my Medicaid ID number and asked for me to verify my address. …They told me that I owe the Department of Medicaid money from 2017… I contacted the police and (also) contacted Medicaid. they told me they would never call and ask for personal information or money.”
Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland is providing the following tips to help prevent open enrollment scams.
- Be wary of anyone who contacts you unsolicited. People representing Medicare and marketplace health care plans won’t contact you by phone, email, or in person unless you are already enrolled. Be especially cautious of threatening calls that require quick action or immediate payment. While Healthcare.gov does provide legitimate help, their employees – sometimes called Navigators or Assisters – are not allowed to charge for their help or use unsolicited calls as a way to contact consumers.
- Guard your government-issued numbers. Never provide your Medicare ID number, Social Security number, health plan info, credit card numbers, or banking information to anyone you don’t know.
- Utilize official websites. You can enroll or re-enroll in Medicare at Medicare.gov or in a marketplace health plan at Healthcare.gov.
- Decline promotional gifts in exchange for personal information. Be wary any time a broker offers gifts, health screenings, or medical equipment in exchange for providing personally identifiable information (PIP) such as your Medicare ID or Social Security number.
For more tips from BBB on avoiding health care scams, check BBB.org/HealthCareScam. If you’ve been the victim of a scam, please report it to BBB.org/ScamTracker. By sharing your experience, you can help others avoid falling victim to similar scams.
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