The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has created a tip sheet that providers can give to seniors to help protect them from scams when they enroll in Medicare prescription drug plans starting in November. CMS advises beneficiaries, for example, to never release their Medicare number to unsolicited callers or on the Internet unless they are enrolling in a drug plan online. The tip sheet also lists Medicare’s rules on what plans are forbidden to do, such as charge a fee to enroll in the plan, ask for payment over the phone or online, or enroll a beneficiary over the phone unless the individual initiated the contact. CMS also provides hotline numbers to report fraud and lists other resources to assist seniors in spotting scams and to help resolve complaints.
