Watch Out For Scams Involving Benefits Applications
The Illinois SMP
program at AgeOptions has been receiving reports of health care
companies offering to do benefits applications for older adults in
senior buildings in various parts of the state. While there is
nothing inherently wrong with health care providers assisting with
benefit applications, we would like to provide a couple of relevant
tips to ensure that consumers protect themselves from potential
fraud.
In one recent
example, while assisting people with Circuit Breaker applications, a
home health agency requested the individuals' Medicare and Medicaid
numbers. Neither Medicare nor Medicaid information is necessary to
complete a Circuit Breaker application. Therefore, it is possible
that this company was collecting that information for some other
purpose, such as to enroll those individuals in home health care.
We recommend that
people only utilize well-known, trusted sources of assistance when
filling out benefits applications, such as the local Area Agency on
Aging, a local senior center, or other provider of community
services to older adults or people with disabilities. Because these
applications require personal information, it is critical that
consumers can trust the people who help fill them out, in order to
avoid possible identity theft or other fraud. Benefits programs can
also be complex, so if anyone is helping someone fill out a benefits
program application, that person should be trained in those programs
and how to do the applications. Many staff members at nonprofit
social service agencies have received this kind of training, but
health care providers and for-profit businesses may not.
To summarize, our
tips here are the same as always -- before you share personal
information (Social Security numbers, Medicare numbers, etc.) with
someone, make sure that person is someone that you know and can
trust. Otherwise, you may be at risk for fraud or identity theft.
Also, if someone asks for information to help you with a benefits
application, make sure that they can tell you why they need
that information and what they will do with it once the
application has been completed (i.e., will they shred your
personal information, or are they going to keep it on file to try to
get you signed up for additional services in the future?)
Unfortunately, because we have a large variety of scams in Illinois,
it is important to always be on the 'lookout' for people who might
be pretending to help us when really trying to take advantage of us!
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