Iowa Insurance Division launches Senior Medicare Patrol to take fraud reports
The Iowa Insurance Division is launching a new resource for Iowans to report Medicare fraud, Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen announced this morning. The Senior Medicare Patrols (SMP) will empower Medicare beneficiaries, families and caregivers to detect and report health care fraud, errors and abuse, Ommen said in a statement. SMPs are grant-funded projects of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living. The U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that $1 of every $7 spent on Medicare is paid inappropriately, adding up to $50 billion lost to Medicare fraud nationally in 2017.