New details on fraudulent Medicare bills being sent
EYEWITNESS NEWS (WBRE/WYOU) — Questions and concerns continue to be raised Friday by people from all over Northeastern Pennsylvania regarding possible Medicare Billing Fraud.
This comes after an I-Team report earlier this week that highlighted reports of senior citizens being billed for services or products they never used by healthcare companies they never heard of.
“My concern is how many senior citizens are on Medicare and a lot of people don’t look at their bills. They don’t see if there are these services,” said Linda Joseph, Wilkes-Barre.
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Linda Joseph from Wilkes-Barre sounded the alarm after she opened up her Medicare summary and saw more than $11,000 in charges for medical services and products she did not receive.
The charges were from a New York-based company she never heard of before she opened the letter. Most of the items billed were for catheters which Joesph does not use or need.
“Well, a light bulb went off and we saw the same thing on Gabby’s last two medical summary notices that came in the mail,” said Tim and Gabby Babbitt, of Hazleton.
That’s the reaction from Tim Babbitt from Hazleton after seeing our I-Team report on Tuesday. He says his wife Gabby saw the same type of charges for catheters. More than $4,000 was billed to Medicare but the company that billed Medicare is based in Florida.
“Gabby doesn’t use catheters at all and is for a lot of money and they were billing our secondary insurance as well. Medicare did pay $900 or something like that,” stated Tim Babbitt.
“For the fraudulent charges they paid out,” Mehalshick asked.
“Yeah, they paid out,” Tim Babbitt added.
Another area resident emailed the i-team writing, “If it hadn’t been for your reporting I never would have thought about contacting my supplemental insurance carrier concerning the difference between what Medicare covered and the amount of the total bill.”
The I-Team reached out to the New York company and left a message.
As of this Friday evening 28/22 News did not hear back from that company and we also reached out to area federal lawmakers who say they are looking into the situation. They urge residents to contact Medicare directly to file complaints or concerns if they receive questionable billing summaries.
Mehalshick said he also reached out to medicare officials and has not yet heard back. If you suspect a fraud or a scam contact the Senate Aging Committee’s Fraud Hotline at 1-855-305-9470.
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