Creating Community Awareness about Medicare Fraud: Development of an Information Packet for Area Agency on Aging Programs

Educating the community about the presence of Medicare fraud is important to reduce the occurrence of fraud and to protect individuals from being victims of such negligence. Fraud costs the Medicare Program billions of dollars every year. Medicare beneficiaries pay for fraud through higher health care costs. Fraud schemes may be carried out by individuals, companies, or groups o f individuals. Informing beneficiaries of their role in protecting themselves and others against Medicare fraud will increase the likelihood o f these individuals reporting errors and concerns that they find on their Medicare statement. The purpose of this master's project was to create a functional information packet about Medicare fraud prevention that could be utilized by local Area Agency on Aging Programs in the community to educate Medicare beneficiaries about Medicare fraud and their role in fraud prevention. The information packet will be presented in a manner that takes into consideration the older population's needs and impairments.