![]() ![]() area, said he’s been “inundated” with similar complaints.īloomberg Government also identified victims in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Jay Todras, who helps seniors facing Medicare fraud in the Tampa, Fla. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul received seven complaints about the same problem, said Annie Thompson, a spokeswoman for Raoul. In New Hampshire, Attorney General John Formella reported a rise in complaints from seniors about unwanted tests, he said in a statement. One senior received 16 unsolicited tests, she said. Reports surged in the months leading up to the official end of the pandemic emergency, Erhard said. In New York, unsolicited test kits being sent to people’s homes are “the most reported Covid-19 scam to date,” said Tiffany Erhard, director of that state’s Senior Medicare Patrol, an organization that helps guide beneficiaries. “The number of complaints represent a small portion of people with Medicare that have received these tests,” the spokesperson said. ![]() The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has received calls from seniors about receiving test kits they didn’t order and is investigating instances of “potential abuse,” a spokesperson for the agency said. Medicare generally no longer covers an at-home Covid test unless a health provider orders it, after the Biden administration ended pandemic emergency measures on May 11. ![]() The onslaught of unwanted tests is expected to wane. The department, along with the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, is investigating other reports of coronavirus tests being sent to recipients who never ordered them, both said in separate statements. The scheme resulted in $8.4 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, the Justice Department said. The Justice Department in April charged a Florida physician and marketer who it said illegally bought Medicare ID numbers and sent tests to seniors who did not request them. It is the latest in a string of scams targeting seniors during the coronavirus pandemic, advocates for seniors said. The Biden administration in early 2022 expanded access to free tests but often without the safeguards that would make it harder to get them to Americans quickly. The fraud is a consequence of President Joe Biden‘s response to a shortage of Covid-19 tests around the 2021 holiday season, when shoppers struggled to find them in stores. “These are coming from all over the place.” ![]() “With scams, there tends to be some local focus, a focus in a certain city or state,” said John Risler, volunteer director of Northeast Florida’s Senior Medicare Patrol task force. Seniors and their families in at least 10 states have been targeted, Bloomberg Government found. The US Justice Department is investigating who bilked millions from Medicare by stealing the ID numbers of seniors in multiple states and ordering Covid-19 tests they didn’t want.įraudsters even billed for rapid tests ordered under the names of dead people, according to a health-care fraud prosecutor at the Justice Department who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing.įederal investigators are just beginning to uncover the breadth of the fraud, which involved hundreds of thousands of tests. ![]()
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