Senior medicare patrol helps fight fraud, scams in missouri

Bruce Voigts started receiving Medicare coverage in February, and although he's well versed in the system, he was nervous. "It's a whole new insurance system," said

Voigts, 65, of Branson West. "It's a change in the way I've been doing things for many years." Voigts is hardly alone — nationwide, about 9,000 people become eligible for

Medicare every day. More than 1 million Missourians are currently enrolled. Unlike many of the new enrollees, Voigts knows what to look for when he receives his quarterly Medicare Summary

Notice (MSN), the list of medical services for which Medicare has been billed. ­ Along with his wife, Phyllis, he is one of the more than 100 volunteers in the Missouri Senior Medicare

Patrol, which helps people understand their MSNs — and helps prevent waste and identify fraud in the Medicare system. The Patrol is federally funded but operates through Care Connection for

Aging Services in partnership with the Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging. AARP Missouri has teamed up with Care Connection to offer seminars across the state to help educate

Medicare beneficiaries. The seminars go over how to enroll online at MyMedicare.gov, how to read MSNs and how to use resources such as the MSN "decoders" available on the AARP

website. The seminars also encourage participants to become Senior Medicare Patrol volunteers. TRAINED PROFESSIONALS "AARP is very pleased to be a partner in this project because

it's something very important when it comes to stopping waste," said Norma Collins, AARP Missouri associate state director for advocacy. "So many people are confused.

Sometimes those statements … are intimidating." Rona McNally, director of special projects for Care Connection for Aging Services in Warrensburg, said, "We train retired

professionals to go out and educate within their communities — caregivers and providers — about the potential for Medicare scams, how to find them and report them." The volunteers tell

people about the importance of reading their MSNs and asking: * Did you need that service? * Did you receive the service? * Did you see the provider? * Were you seen on the billing date?

Seniors who suspect something is amiss are encouraged to call the Patrol, which works with investigative agencies. "Seniors are the best frontline defense against fraud and abuse,"

McNally said. "They're going to know before anybody else." She said the Patrol has helped launch 81 investigations that are now open; the results are hard to know for sure

because investigative agencies often don't share detailed results.