Medicare Fraud in Florida
Bottom Line: It’s no surprise that fraud is bad in Florida. Earlier this year we learned that once again Florida is the top overall state for fraud. This was true on an absolute basis and relative basically. It’s like this. You have a better chance of becoming a victim of fraud in Florida than anywhere else. It’s not a surprise when you think about it. It comes down to opportunity for scammers. The mix of ethnicity, culture, languages and older than average demographics is a mix that scammers unfortunately use to mislead and exploit. Eligibility.com just produced a study of documented Medicare fraud over the past year and found that not only is Florida first in Medicare fraud, 11 of the top 25 cities in the country for Medicare fraud are in Florida. They are...
- #25: Vero Beach
- #24: Ocala
- #22: Orlando
- #21: Port St. Lucie
- #15: Miami
- #14: Tampa
- #13: Gainesville
- #12: Daytona Beach
- #11: Melbourne
- #5: Jacksonville
- #1: Homosassa Springs
The average loss by a victim of a Medicare scam is $34,200. The two most common ways someone is victimized are by people posing as Medicare officials and offers of free testing (often genetic testing) if you provide your Medicare information. In addition to being costly, Medicare fraud can even be deadly as medical charts are often conflated with someone else’s medical information. It’s a reminder for our parents that no matter what the situation happens to be, they should never provide any personal information unless they’ve initiated the contact with medical professionals.