Friday December 30, 2011
Please share this Fraud Alert with colleagues, consumers, or other professionals in your area. If you have any questions about the Illinois SMP program, or to receive these Fraud Alerts directly, please contact Erin Weir, Healthcare Consumer Protection Coordinator at AgeOptions.
Fraud In The News
The following are current news articles about health care and fraud issues.
Consumer Fraud:
- “Local Woman Loses $15,000 Trying to Buy a Car Online” (Tinley Park Patch):
- “Two Arrested for ‘Pigeon Drop’ Scam in Florissant” (KSDK St. Louis):
Dear SMP readers,
This week’s Fraud Alert containsinformation about translated SMP materials, a warning about a scammer who claims to be from the Glenview Senior Center, and a new training video and podcast from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General.
Have a great weekend, and Happy New Year!
What you will find in this week’s Fraud Alert
- SMP Materials Available in Non-English Languages
- Glenview Senior Center Warns of Telephone Scam
- OIG Posts False Claims Act Video and Podcast
AgeOptions worked with the Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly (CLESE) in Chicago to translate the SMP home health and durable medical equipment fraud tip sheets into 12 languages. The tip sheetsare now available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Assyrian, Bosnian, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Khmer, Korean, Polish, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Additionally, our newest SMP staff member at AgeOptions, Antonia Gamez, has been working diligently to translate our educational materials into Spanish. We currently have the following materials available in Spanish:
- SMP Medicare and Medicaid fraud tip sheet
- SMP Medicare and Medicaid fraud PowerPoint
- SMP home health fraud tip sheet
- SMP insurance plan marketing tip sheet
- SMP insurance plan marketing PowerPoint
You can download all of these from our website, Click on the “Illinois SMP Materials” link on the left side of the page to access our materials page. Then, scroll through the topics listed to download PowerPoint presentations and tip sheets on each topic. (Note: SMP tip sheets are available in PDF form on the website. If you would like to access one or more of these tip sheets in Word document format, please contact the SMP staff at AgeOptions for assistance.)
Glenview Senior Center Warns of Telephone Scam
Several months ago, the Glenview Senior Center was made aware of a scam in which a telephone caller was claiming to represent the Glenview Senior Center to gain people’s trust. Recently, another senior center member received a phone call from someone named Natalie who left a voicemail and said that she works for the Glenview Senior Center. When a Glenview Senior Center staff member called the phone number that Natalie gave on the voice message, she found that it led to a message saying “press 0 for concierge.” When the staff member pressed 0, another message stated, “that option is not available.”
It appears that someone may again be trying to use the Glenview Senior Center’s name in an attempt to gain people’s trust and possible obtain their information. Please remember to never give personal information to anyone who calls on the phone, regardless of where they say they are calling from, as the person could be lying. Instead, contact the agency that the caller claims to be from using the agency’s published number – only then can you be sure that you are talking to a legitimate representative!
OIG Posts False Claims Act Video and Podcast
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) added a video and podcast about the False Claims Act to their Provider Compliance Training section of their website. You can view the video and listen to the podcast (along with other training videos and podcasts) here:
Erin Weir, MSW, LSW, Healthcare Consumer Protection Coordinator
AgeOptions
1048 Lake Street, Suite 300
Oak Park, IL 60301
phone (708)383-0258 fax (708)524-0870
ageoptions.org
AgeOptions, the Area Agency on Aging of Suburban Cook County, is committed to improving the quality of life and maintaining the dignity of older adults and those who care about them – through leadership and support, community partnerships, comprehensive services, accurate information and powerful advocacy.
Fraud Alerts contain information about current scams taking place in Illinois, announcements and updates about programs or services related to health care and/or fraud protection, and links to news articles about health care and fraud topics. Please forward any recommendations or announcements that you would like to be included in a future Fraud Alert to .