Telemarketing Tactics by Mail-Order Suppliers of Home Diabetes-testing supplies
The Senior Medicare Patrol is…….. LOOKING OUT FOR YOU
PREVENT DETECT REPORT
DATE: 1/21/14 2014-1
SUBJECT: Telemarketing Tactics by Mail-Order Suppliers of Home Diabetes-Testing Supplies
If you have Original Medicare, and you have diabetes and get your diabetes testing supplies delivered to your home, take note of this important ALERT!
Medicare’s National Mail-Order Program for diabetes testing supplies began on July 1, 2013. You now need to use a supplier in this program in order to have Medicare pay for diabetes testing supplies that are delivered to your home.
Some suppliers use marketing companies to send out postcards to people with Medicare to get personal information for suppliers to make sales calls. If you reply to these postcards, you may not know how the information you give on the postcard will be used.
You may receive sales calls that pressure you to switch vendors or confuse you by telling you that you have a new supplier. As bait, they may offer what they claim to be the latest blood glucose monitor FREE – to get you to give out your Medicare number and your doctor’s name.
Testing supplies may even be shipped to your home even though you did not enroll in the supplier’s mail-order program and your doctor did not send in a prescription.
1. Make sure your mail-order supplier is an approved supplier in Medicare’s National Mail-Order Program. Tell your doctor to write the name of your chosen supplier in your medical record.
2. If you receive a telemarketing call from someone who is not your mail-order supplier, don’t give out your Medicare number. Hang up.
3. If unordered items arrive at your home, refuse the delivery. Don’t open the box. Give it back to your mail carrier to return to the sender. If you opened the box, call the supplier and ask for a shipping label. If they tell you they will close your account but tell you to keep the supplies, return the supplies anyway so they can’t turn around and bill Medicare. Make sure to get a return receipt.
4. Notify Medicare at 1-800-633-4227. Check your Medicare Summary Notice to make sure Medicare does not pay for the supplies you returned. Call the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP Hawaii) at 586-7281 or 1-800-296-9422 if you need help.
Kaʻū Rural Health Community Association, Inc. 