Warning: Fraudulent hospice enrollment schemes targeting Medicare recipients

In this emerging scheme, fraud rings obtain Medicare beneficiaries' personal and insurance information — sometimes through a cold call offering a free health screening or benefit, sometimes through purchased or stolen data — and use it to enroll beneficiaries in hospice care under a fraudulent or complicit provider. The beneficiary is often unaware they have been enrolled at all, since hospice is generally billed directly to Medicare rather than the patient.

Once enrolled, the fraudulent hospice bills Medicare for a full range of hospice services that are never actually delivered. Because hospice enrollment also revokes a beneficiary's regular Medicare coverage for their underlying condition, a victim who later needs unrelated medical care can find their legitimate treatment denied or delayed, on top of the financial harm to the Medicare program.

The FBI's IC3 is warning Medicare recipients and their families to review Medicare Summary Notices and the Medicare.gov account regularly for any hospice enrollment or billing they don't recognize, and to be cautious of unsolicited calls offering free screenings, benefits, or equipment in exchange for a Medicare number.