The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) is warning about a fraud scheme involving genetic testing and Medicare.
According to the OIG, scammers are offering Medicare beneficiaries cheek swabs for genetic testing to obtain their Medicare information for identity theft or fraudulent billing purposes. Fraudsters are targeting beneficiaries through telemarketing calls, booths at public events, health fairs, and door-to-door visits.
If a beneficiary agrees to genetic testing or verifies personal or Medicare information, a testing kit is sent even if it is not ordered by a physician or medically necessary.
Medicare, however, does not cover genetic testing, except in very rare circumstances and such a test must be medically necessary and ordered by a Medicare beneficiary's own doctor.
Residents of Iowa, among other places, have been targeted by the scam.
Kriss Gross, director of the Iowa Senior Medicare Patrol, a service of the Iowa Insurance Division, said in a statement that, “Scammers are promoting a so-called free genetic (or DNA) test to Iowans on Medicare. People are falsely told that Medicare will pay for a preventive genetic test to check for cancer. Iowans are being targeted in a wide variety of ways including at health fairs, door to door, and through telemarketing calls.”
Ms. Gross added, “Walk away from this scam and hang up on any calls that attempt to secure your Medicare number.”
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].