The phone rings again.  This is the third time within the last hour. You reluctantly get up from your comfy chair to answer the phone to find that the caller is neither family nor friend.

If you’re retired and on Medicare you’re probably well aware of the club that no one wants to join: Medicare spam calls from overseas.  Seniors today get inundated with these calls on a daily basis.

We have some clients who claim they receive 30+ calls per day!!  That is enough to drive anyone crazy.

In this brief post, we’ll share with you a few tips that will help protect and potentially decrease, if not come close to completely eliminating, those pesky calls.

As Medicare advisors, we regularly counsel clients to protect their Medicare Beneficiary ID (number on the card) like they do with their social security or credit card number.

The out of the blue sales calls asking about Medicare are trying to obtain that Medicare ID.  By giving out this number, a senior is enabling the call center to switch their Medicare plan and receive compensation for “helping.”

Beware!  We have run into situations where people have been put in some really terrible situations where their doctors, specialists or certain prescriptions weren’t covered under the new play they were switched to.

There are certain situations and times of the year that we can help get people out of a sticky situation like this if they have fallen prey to one of these calls.  A variety of Special Election Periods (SEP) exist throughout the year for which you may qualify and enable a plan change.

Some examples include if you’ve recently moved out of your old plan area, have suffered from a severe weather emergency or a 5-star ranked Medicare Advantage plan is in your area.  On occasion, we are unable to help and the retiree has to stay on that plan until the next time they can make a change (i.e. October 15 – Dec 7^th Annual Enrollment Period or Jan 1 – Mar 31 Open Enrollment Period).

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Don’t give out your Medicare ID other than to health care providers and trusted Medicare advisors to help avoid any costly insurance mistakes.

To help prevent and protect yourself against Medicare and other sales calls, we recommend the following:

For Landline & Cell Phones
Sign up for the National Do Not Call registry at donotcall.gov. This takes less than 5 minutes to enroll.  You will need the phone number you would like to add to the registry and an email address for confirmation purposes.

Unfortunately, the email address is a requirement. If you don’t have an email address, ask a family member to assist here.

Smart Phone Devices (Apple or Android)
In addition to the Do Not Call Registry, consider adding one of following call-blocking apps (there may be a small monthly fee for these, but well worth the peace of mind):

1. Robokiller
2. Robo Shield
3. Trucaller
4. Hiya

Conclusion
The purpose of the above actions is to prevent these calls and protect you.  Remember, you do not have to pick up the phone from an unknown number or ID.  You can simply let it go to your voicemail.

If you do run into an issue where your Medicare plan may have been erroneously against your will, feel free to reach out and contact us.

Medicare is extremely complex and confusing!  Reach out to us today to see how we can be of help analyzing your situation and providing guidance.

We work with those who are first enrolling to Medicare and those that have been on Medicare for decades to ensure they have the right coverage for their situation, and as described above, helping navigate through some challenging situations.

info@superiorfinancialgrp.com
www.retirementbenefitpros.com

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash.