Your Medicare patients may be getting calls from shameless scammers trying to capitalize on the health reform law's "donut hole" provision. The law requires the government to issue a $250 check to seniors on Medicare that will cover the $250 gap in prescription drug coverage -- commonly referred to as the donut hole.
TIP: Tell your patients to watch out for calls from scammers who may be posing as HHS or CMS officials. The scammers are allegedly calling seniors and asking them for sensitive information such as their Social Security or Medicare numbers, under the pretext of needing these details in order to issue the $250 checks. Of course, no such details are needed; HHS is mailing out the checks automatically as soon as beneficiaries become eligible. No action on their part is needed, and the checks are issued tax-free, once per patient, the agency says.
"Seniors should never, ever, give their Social Security or their Medicare number to anyone over the phone, and no forms are needed for these rebates," says Tamra Simpson, an official with the Indiana Association of Area Agencies on Aging (IAAA).
HHS began issuing the checks in June. Patients are eligible if they have Medicare Part D coverage and are not on the Medicare Extra Help program for people with limited income and resources.