Prevent and Detect Healthcare Fraud

Prevent health care fraud by protecting your medical identification cards and numbers.

1. Treat your Medicare card and number like you would a credit card.
2. Only share Medicare and other health care identification cards and numbers with trusted sources who need that information to serve you, such as your health care providers.
3. Rely on your doctors for medical advice and prescriptions, not advice or offers of medical services from unknown persons who call, visit, or approach you in public.
4. Never sign a blank medical or insurance form.
   1. Always read and make sure you understand the content before you sign.
   2. Request a copy of a form or document you sign for your own records.

Prevention alone cannot stop all fraud, errors, and abuse. Detect potential problems by taking the following steps:

1. Keep records of health care visits, services or equipment received, test results, etc. Ask your local SMP for a My Healthcare Tracker, a fraud-fighting tool that is available for free to beneficiaries through the SMP program. The trackers help beneficiaries prevent, detect, and report suspected Medicare fraud, errors, or abuse.
2. File copies of bills received from your doctor, hospital, pharmacist, supplier, or other health care provider.
3. Save your Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs) and Explanations of Benefits (EOBs) and review them for accuracy.
4. Ask questions of your provider, Medicare plan, or 1-800-Medicare when:
   • You don’t understand the charges billed
   • You don’t think you received the service
   • You feel the service was unnecessary
   • You were charged for the same thing twice
5. Beware of charges for services not received, duplicate charges, or services that were not ordered by your doctor.
6. Compare the dates, providers, and services received, shown on MSNs and EOBs, to what is documented in your personal health care records.