SPOKANE, Wash. — Reports of a potential Medicare scam have reached the Inland Northwest.
People have reported receiving a phone call from an unknown number claiming to be someone from the Medicare Enrollment Center. The caller claims that you have previously inquired about updating your Medicare Card.
Calls like this led a KREM 2 viewer to reach out to the Verify team, asking, "Getting calls from a 206-number, stating they need to update my Medicare Card. When I said no... they hung up. I've never heard that Medicare will update the card. Is this a scam??"
THE QUESTION
Are calls asking you to update or renew your Medicare card a scam?
SOURCES
THE ANSWER
WHAT WE FOUND
According to Kim McKenna, the senior Medicare Patrol coordinator for Washington state, Medicare will not call and ask you for more information or money.
Medicare last changed its cards in 2018, changing what used to be the recipient's Social Security number to a random series of numbers and letters. According to McKenna, Medicare doesn't have any plans to change the cards again.
"Medicare will not be sending out any new cards or designing new cards," she said. "There are no cards with chips, there are no plastic, special cards that come with extra benefits. And Medicare will never call and ask for your personal ,identifiable information."
Scammers, however, can be very convincing.
"We all are very tapped into social media these days, and so scammers will use whatever personal information they can find," McKenna explained. "It could be your full name, it could be an address, could be your date of birth, and they'll call and they'll say, 'This is Medicare.' And they will have enough personal information of yours to sound like they are an authority, like they know you and they have a record on you."
Below are tips from Medicare to avoid fraud:
- Protect your Medicare and Social Security numbers
- Guard your Medicare Card like it's a credit card
- Don't accept offers that promise money or gifts for free medical care
- Don't join a Medicare health or drug plan over the phone unless you initiate the call
According to the FCC, scammers may spook a phone number to make it appear like the call is coming from a government agency or health provider. Just because the call looks like it is local doesn't mean it is, the FCC says.
"If somebody receives a call from supposedly Medicare, they need to just hang up," McKenna said. "Scammers will use that information to then mine for information."
If you suspect fraud, you can report it to the Senior Medicare Patrol. In Washington state, the number is 1-800-562-6900. In Idaho, the number is 1-800-247-4422.
Numbers for all other states can be found here.
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