Fraudulent hospice enrollments are on the rise and are dangerous. Not only do they rob Medicare and taxpayers of millions of dollars each year, they can also have serious consequences on beneficiaries. Some of these consequences include: losing access to one’s medications, doctors and/or treatments, and experiencing a significant decline in health or even death. Because of this, we’ve created a new fraud alert available in 9 languages. It includes an overview of this type of fraud and important tips for prevention.
Remember, Medicare only covers hospice care if a beneficiary is determined by his/her doctor to be terminally ill with 6 months or less to live. If a beneficiary is enrolled in hospice, it changes their Medicare coverage to focus on palliative care, not curative care.
Many of these scammers trick beneficiaries into enrolling into the hospice benefit by telling them that Medicare is offering additional benefits that include cooking and cleaning and/or that they qualify due to age, not a terminal illness. Both of these are not true. These scammers also trick caregivers into enrolling their loved ones into hospice with these same lies.
Please share this new fraud alert far and wide. Report any such suspected fraud to our California Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) at 1-855-613-7080.
This alert is downloadable as a PDF and is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Armenian and Farsi.
Thank you for your help in spreading the word and preventing and detecting these scams.
Download the fraud alert here.
