The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is promoting a campaign to help educate people with Medicare, and their loved ones, on how to protect themselves against Medicare Hospice fraud. Every day, criminals target older Americans with one goal – to steal their Medicare numbers and other protected health information.

CMS developed a Hospice Fraud Prevention Toolkit that includes social media posts and a drop-in article to help educate beneficiaries and their loved ones on how to protect themselves against Medicare Hospice fraud. 

People with Medicare should beware of scammers offering older Americans in-home perks, like free cooking, cleaning and home health services, while they are unknowingly being signed up for hospice services. The scammers then unlawfully bill Medicare for these services. Criminals are using every avenue they can to sign people up including door-to door visits, false advertising, phone, text and email. 

Hospice care is for people who are terminally ill and only the patient and doctor can make this serious decision about end-of-life care.

Help CMS spread the word about Medicare Hospice fraud by sharing the Hospice Fraud Prevention Toolkit with your networks and on social media. The toolkit includes the following materials:

• Drop-in article: share with your networks through your listservs, newsletters and other outlets asking your members to share the article with people with Medicare and their families and caregivers. This drop-in article is designed to speak directly to people about Hospice fraud and why they should care about it. This article is available in English and Spanish.
• Social media posts: social media posts that you and your network can share on your organization’s social media accounts. Social media posts are available in English and Spanish.

For more information on the actions people can take to avoid Medicare fraud and for information on how to report suspected fraud, visit //medicare.gov/fraud.