The Department of Health and Human Services is launching a nationwide television and radio ad campaign aimed at educating the public about Medicare fraud. The focus of the campaign is to help seniors understand the importance of protecting personal information such as Medicare numbers.
"Empowering consumers to prevent fraud is essential in preserving the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs," said HHS Assistant Secretary Kathy Greenlee. "The new Senior Medicare Patrol media and outreach campaign will protect seniors from fraud and scams. It will also increase the number of dedicated volunteers who are working around the country to protect the Medicare Trust Funds."
[See also: GAO reports $48B in Medicare fraud in 2010 ; Anti-fraud work yields $4B in savings for CMS]
While the campaign will have a national scope, HHS will look for higher media saturation in 18 states that have high rates of Medicare fraud. Seven of the markets have active Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) Strike Forces: Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Brooklyn, Tampa Bay, Chicago and Baton Rouge, La. The other 11 states targeted are Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
In these states, the ads will be customized to include local Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) toll-free phone numbers, while ads running in the remaining states will include a national tol-free number. The public service announcements for the campaign will teach seniors how to recognize a Medicare scam as well as recruit additional seniors to participate in the SMP, a program of the Administration on Aging.
The ad campaign comes as President Barack Obama's administration increases fraud prevention efforts. Last year, through the efforts of HEAT and the Department of Justice, the government recovered more than $4 billion for Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
According to the Government Accountability Office, Medicare paid nearly $48 billion of its total $507 billion budget in fraudulent or improper payments last year.
"The valuable partnership between CMS and AoA is a critical complement to the fraud-fighting tools used across HHS, such as claims reviews and investigations," said Peter Budetti, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' new Center for Program Integrity. "We continue to work with and rely on our beneficiaries, who experience these scams firsthand and are the first line of defense – taking actions to prevent as well as detect healthcare fraud."