As Medicare’s Dec. 7 enrollment deadline approaches, older adults and caregivers should be on the lookout for scammers. Hoping to con people into disclosing Social Security numbers or other sensitive information, fraudsters pose as Medicare officials or insurance company employees in phone calls and text messages.
This trickery adds to the already stressful experience of deciding on insurance coverage , but there are ways older adults and caregivers can avoid being duped and potentially losing money or their identities. Ryan Ramsey with the National Council on Aging, a nonprofit that advocates for the well-being of older adults, said that it’s first good to know that toward the end of November, criminals are particularly active as they seek to leverage the approaching deadline to pressure people into making mistakes. In the following conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Ramsey explains how older adults and caregivers can protect themselves during this period and how to handle suspicious interactions.
In general, Medicare insurance will not communicate with you over the phone. How We Care: The federal Medicare program will never call you unexpectedly. But a lot of people have Medicare Advantage plans or supplementary prescription drug insurance — which people might know as Medicare Part D — and this coverage is sold by private insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Aetna.
Will these companies ever contact you over the phone about you.
