Medicare fraud-busters target Chicago

Medicare fraud-busters target Chicago


As scams targeting seniors proliferate, fraud-fighting efforts intensify

Day after day, the delivery trucks arrived at the building on Chicago's North Side, bringing walkers, hospital beds and wheelchairs to residents.

But there was a problem: Most of the older men and women getting the equipment were healthy and didn't need it, according to Jessica Moon, resident coordinator at the apartment complex.

The elderly residents, immigrants from Japan, Korea and China, had agreed to accept the deliveries after smooth-talking marketers went door to door, getting their Medicare numbers and telling them they might need the items if they got sick, Moon reported.

Then, the equipment supplier persuaded doctors — it's not clear how many — to sign the orders, completing the deception.

It was an all-too-typical scam targeting vulnerable seniors, according to Erin Weir, coordinator of Illinois Senior Medicare Patrol, who got involved in the case and helped stop the deliveries. Older adults were manipulated, a duplicitous company raked in money from Medicare, and taxpayers paid a bundle for unnecessary services, she said.

Weir declined to name the company, saying authorities were looking into the case

Read complete article at link below:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-health-fraud-seniors-20110407,0,7642542.story

Editor's note: Erin, contact your ProbateShark for the name of a bank in Chicago and account numbers involved in scamming seniors in conjunction with the probate racketeers. The FEDS are presently investigating this bank, however another set of eyes looking into the crooks never hurts. Some of the parasitic health care management companies have even moved their offices within 5 minutes of the bank in order to be closer to their prey.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com