SVCOA Notice on Medicare and / or Fraudulent Health Insurance Scams

Southwestern Vermont Council on Aging would like to advise clients and community members of a number of calls from Medicare vendors or other third parties in our service area of Bennington and Rutland Counties, as well as in other areas of the state of Vermont.

Several of these telephone calls are to clients already enrolled in a WellCare part D drug plan to discuss ‘added benefits’; while the main intent is to get the client to switch to one of their Advantage Plans.

Another telephone scam, related or unrelated, has advised Vermont residents that their Medicare account had been breached and the caller offered to send the individual a new “gold card” if subsequent instructions were followed. Medicare will never call a client directly and there is no ‘gold card’.

With Annual Open Enrollment coming up (Oct. 15-Dec 7), marketers will take advantage of this.

The purpose of AOE is to give people the chance to switch Part D drug plans to another one.

SVCOA encourages individuals to be vigilant when dealing with these types of calls to ensure legitimacy of programming and services being offered.

Anyone with questions or concerns related to such calls is encouraged to call SVCOA at 802-786-5990. Thank you!