By Linda T. Cammuso
If you have Medicare, your coverage will continue as before. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. If you are contacted by anyone about your Medicare benefits or telling you that you need a new healthcare card, be careful – that caller may be trying to steal personal information from you.
Unfortunately scammers are taking advantage of the fact that the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) overlaps with Medicare’s Advantage Plans, and using it to cause confusion and to steal personal and financial information from Medicare recipients and others. The scammers claim that they represent Medicare and tell beneficiaries that they need a new Medicare card then follow up with questions that capture information you should never disclose in a phone call.
We want you to understand that:
- Persons 65 and over who are on Medicare do not need to get a new Medicare card
- Medicare, as with the IRS, never contacts beneficiaries by phone or by email, instead they use regular mail
Remember that your Medicare coverage continues as it did before. Should you receive such a call, please contact the Senior Medicare Patrol in Massachusetts at http://masmp.org/ or call them at 800-892-0890.