Sharing this important info about possible fraud to be on the lookout for…please, if you encounter this scenario, report it to your state Senior Medicare Patrol so they can track it.

Find your SMP at www.smpresource.org

Brandy Bauer (she/her)

Director, Health Coverage & Benefits
571-527-3911
ncoa.org | @NCOAging

From: Kinney, Rebecca (ACL)
Sent: Wednesday, March 1, 2023 5:02 PM
To: xxxxxx@LIST.NIH.GOV
Subject: Reporting Plastic Medicare Card Contacts

Caution. This email is EXTERNAL.

Hello Everyone,

The SMPs have been reporting contacts from a gentleman offering plastic Medicare cards to beneficiaries. He appears to be reaching out to the SMPs specifically but there’s potential he could reach out to the SHIP and MIPPA grantees too. Therefore, I’m sending this to everyone.

I’ve shared the information we have received so far on this with both the OIG and CMS. They are separately looking into what is happening to determine what, if anything, needs to be done (or can be done) with these incidents. In the meantime, however, we’re getting so many reports of this happening that we feel it would be helpful to track more closely what is occurring. Therefore…

If you receive a contact from anyone offering plastic Medicare cards please do not respond to the inquiry. At this point there is no need to gather additional information. Instead, we would like you to do one of the following:

SMPs – Please enter these as a case in SIRS and refer to the OIG via ACL. Enter all the information you have but don’t worry about gathering additional details.
For the non-SMP SHIP and MIPPA grantees – Please send any details you have to your SMP colleagues in the state (so that they can then enter it in SIRS) and shoot me a quick email to alert me of the incident.

If any of you hear of beneficiaries being contacted on this please let me know. So far we only have reports of SMPs being approached. However, if beneficiaries are being contacted we will need to treat those incidents like a typical SMP case (i.e. enter it in SIRS if you’re an SMP and refer to OIG; or send the case to your SMP for further action).

I hope this is helpful. Please reach out if you have any questions. We will share updates if/when we receive anything.

Thank you!

Rebecca

Rebecca Kinney (she/her)
Director, Office of Healthcare Information and Counseling
O: 202-795-7375
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