WASHINGTON DC (October 1, 2019) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles "Chuck" Grassley sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma seeking information on what their agencies are doing to detect and deter fraudulent genetic screening tests and protect beneficiaries from identity-theft.
“The Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General (OIG) issued a Fraud Alert for genetic testing scams. In that alert, the OIG stated that scammers have offered Medicare beneficiaries free genetic test-screenings ‘to obtain their Medicare information for identity-theft or fraudulent billing-purposes.’ On September 27, 2019, the OIG announced the results of a fraud investigation that resulted in charges against 35 individuals for their alleged participation in genetic fraud schemes involving potentially $2.1 billion in losses,” Sen Grassley wrote.
"These scammers are allegedly using public events, door-to-door visits, and telemarketing to scam beneficiaries and defraud the tax-payer… Many beneficiaries are told the tests won’t cost them anything and that they would get results in four to six weeks. However, reports indicate that many of them never receive their results but Medicare has been billed thousands of dollars — sometimes more than $10,000 — in their name. Although the beneficiaries aren’t charged a fee, the tax-payers foot the bill for the tests, and many beneficiaries are left to worry about test results that will never come and put at risk of having their identities stolen."
Earlier this year, Sen Grassley raised concerns about the ability of HHS to oversee Medicare’s laboratory fee-payment system after a November 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was released, stating that HHS needed to take decisive steps to prevent abuse and excessive payments in the laboratory fee-payment system.
Text of the letter is available HERE.
