Senior Communities Sound Scam Alarm on New Medicare Cards

Scams surrounding new Medicare cards are spreading, and the Massachusetts Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Program has worked with the Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone (SHINE) Program on a new awareness campaign, reports the Lowell Sun . "The concern is this is another opportunity for those unscrupulous people to scam seniors," says SMP's Lucilia Prates-Ramos. "They use any opportunity they can, so think of it: somebody gets a call. They do something to their phone to make it look like it's from Medicare because you know how they can do that now. And they call and say, 'Hi Mrs. So-and-so, we're getting ready to mail you your new Medicare card. I just need to verify your information.'" According to the campaign, Medicare and the Social Security Administration will never call beneficiaries for their personal information. Council on Aging Executive Director Bethany Loveless says it will take Medicare a year to issue all beneficiaries a new card, and the card rollout for people in Massachusetts is scheduled for sometime after June.