Off topic - Medicare fraud?

[davep700]

My mother got a solicitation call for free ankle and knee braces, which presumably her doctor wanted to send to her (they knew her doctor's name). My mother backed out of the process as we educated her about it. However, they still billed Medicare $800 for 2 braces but did not send anything.

Anyone have experience with these type of shenanigans and getting Medicare to correct it?

[Pugsy]

About the only thing you can do is report them to Medicare and let Medicare sic their dogs on them.

You can bet that yours won't be the only complaint and just because Medicare gets billed for something...doesn't mean that Medicare will pay...and Medicare has ways of getting money back even if they do pay.

[SleepGeek]

My mother got a solicitation call for free ankle and knee braces, which presumably her doctor wanted to send to her (they knew her doctor's name). My mother backed out of the process as we educated her about it. However, they still billed Medicare $800 for 2 braces but did not send anything.

Anyone have experience with these type of shenanigans and getting Medicare to correct it?

YES, I forgot the name of the Co. but their MO is the same - want to send you things for FREE. File a complaint with Medicare. It is tedious but must and should be done. They could have gotten your moms info any number of ways, esp. including FB

[Pugsy]

Sometimes they will send the "free" product but it's a really inferior quality product. They walk a fine line to be a Medicare provider and get money from Medicare.

Moral of this story....don't ever give your Medicare number to anyone over the phone unless YOU CALLED THEM and you know them.

Often if you ask them how they got your name and phone number they will say "your doctor" but that's a lie because doctors can't give out your personal information and health information without your written consent. People are trusting and don't question that response but the doctor can't or won't do that.

My own mom fell for this scam. It was the knee brace scam and she does have a bad knee....she did eventually get a knee brace but OMG was it ever a cheap POS brace. We have no idea what Medicare got billed for it as she didn't know to look for the notice of payment.
It wasn't really any different from what we could get at WalMart for about $20 or so.

[zonker]

My mother got a solicitation call for free ankle and knee braces, which presumably her doctor wanted to send to her (they knew her doctor's name). My mother backed out of the process as we educated her about it. However, they still billed Medicare $800 for 2 braces but did not send anything.

Anyone have experience with these type of shenanigans and getting Medicare to correct it?

thank you for posting this. i haven't to deal with such shenanigans but then i'm fortunate enough to be able to pay for such things out of pocket.

i know that there are many who aren't in my privileged position.

and i think it's a $%#damned shame that there are scamsters out there making money off these grifts.

[Janknitz]

Yes, this is a known fraud scheme. Absolutely report it.

More importantly, how did they know who her doctor was??? HIPAA violations, perhaps?