Medicare fraud: Authorities crack down on scams targeting seniors

By Judith Graham, Tribune reporter6:27 p.m. CDT, April 7, 2011
Day after day, the delivery trucks arrived at the building on Chicago’s North Side, bringing walkers, hospital beds and wheelchairs to residents.

But there was a problem: Most of the older men and women getting the equipment were healthy and didn’t need it, according to Jessica Moon, resident coordinator at the apartment complex.

The elderly residents, immigrants from Japan, Korea and China, had agreed to accept the deliveries after smooth-talking marketers went door to door, getting their Medicare numbers and telling them they might need the items if they got sick, Moon reported.

via Medicare fraud: Authorities crack down on scams targeting seniors – chicagotribune.com.