US charges 11 people in Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare of $10bn

[AverageOldGuy]

22. Let this be a warning to YOU

If you or anyone in your family or your elderly neighbors use Medicare IT IS CRITICAL THAT THEY CAREFULLY READ THE QUARTERLY (OR MONTHLY) MEDICARE STATEMENT. Or, better yet, you read it for them.

Medicare sends out quarterly/monthly statements showing:
-- the doctor or hospital or whomever doing the billing (Dr. I Push Pills);
-- purpose of the bill (set broken arm);
-- the amount of the bill ($1,000);
-- the amount Medicare paid ($900);
-- the amount you may be billed ($100; usually the doc writes off this amount, you don't often get billed for this).

A lady in my church was not in the habit of reading her bills, just glanced at them, filed them, and was happy that no one was billing her. Then, one day, she read the whole thing where she discovered that a medical group six states away had billed her $31,000 for various braces, therapy, and the like -- she did not recognize them, never had such work done.

She then pulled her old bills out of the file cabinet and turned out the same billing was on THREE previous quarterly statements -- a total of $124,000 over the past year.

She called Medicare and was told, yes, this is a scam, we have caught it, it will not be on your bill, please for your and our protection READ YOUR BILL CAREFULLY.

She stood up in church one Sunday and told the congregation about it. All us old people went home, pulled out our Medicare bills and searched them. Next Sunday, three people -- including old you-know-who -- announced that we, too, had found similar false billing.

READ THAT MEDICARE BILL. AND -- READ THE BILL FROM YOU SECONDARY INSURER ALSO. CALL THEM IF ANYTHING LOOKS FISHY.