Congratulations! You now have Medicare! Here come the scams!

Overpriced back braces and knee braces.

$800 arthritis creams which are no better than placebo.

Marginal Quality Medicare Advantage HMO’s with tiny doctor networks.
Poor quality diabetic testing supplies.
Expensive Diabetic Shoes.

Junk mail. Phone calls.  Emails. Text messages. Even door-to-door salespeople!

Once you hit Medicare, you become a target for marketing.Much of this nonsense eventually comes back to hit the doctor.  Signatures are required for those bogus braces, shoes, devices and arthritis creams.  These companies are trying to rope your doctor into the scam. Astute medical offices learn to recognize the paperwork.  Usually, there is only a fax number. The address is absent or a P.O. Box in Florida or Arizona. No voice phone number is listed.

For those patients who erroneously sign up for a bad Medicare Advantage HMO, the surprise comes when they show their new HMO insurance card.  The front desk must deliver the bad news: “We don’t participate with your new plan. You should have checked. We can’t see you. Yes, I know we’ve seen you for the past ten years.  I’m sorry. We’ll forward your records to your new HMO participating doctor.”Ugliness at the front desk ensues.
   
Often, patients have no idea they no longer possess traditional Medicare and will present only their regular Medicare card.  (Front desk people need to be persistent!)

It’s a jungle out there!