A Covid Test Medicare Scam May Be a Trial Run for Further Fraud

By Susan Jaffe, KHN  | May 18, 2023 | This story also ran on  

Medicare coverage for at-home covid-19 tests ended last week, but the scams spawned by the temporary pandemic benefit could have lingering consequences for seniors.

Medicare advocates around the country who track fraud noticed an eleventh-hour rise in complaints from beneficiaries who received tests — sometimes by the dozen — that they never requested. It’s a signal that someone may have been using, and could continue to use, seniors’ Medicare information to improperly bill the federal government. …One beneficiary in Indiana suspected something was amiss after receiving 32 unrequested tests over a 10-day period. [Continued on Kaiser Health News, NPR, Yahoo News, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch]