Senior Medicare Patrol, or SMP, programs help Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries protect against, detect, prevent, and report health care fraud. In doing so, they not only protect older persons, they also help preserve the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
SMP staff and teams of highly trained volunteers conduct outreach to Medicare beneficiaries in their communities through group presentations, exhibiting at community events, answering calls to the SMP help lines, and one-on-one counseling. Like much of the SMP audience, most SMP volunteers are retirees and Medicare beneficiaries themselves and are well-positioned to assist their peers.
SMP’s primary goal is to protect, detect, and report Medicare fraud, errors, and abuse by sharing knowledge of common fraud and scam trends with Medicare beneficiaries, their family, and caregivers and providing them the know-how to protect their personal identity, handle healthcare billing inaccuracies, and recognize and avoid deceptive health care practices and unnecessary or inappropriate services and charges. When Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries are unable to act on their own behalf to address these problems, SMPs work with family caregivers and others to address the problems, and if necessary, make referrals to outside organizations who are able to intervene.
Videos
- Preventing Medical Identity Theft
- Three Common Scams
- What to Do
- Protect Yourself from COVID-19 Medicare Scams!
- Common COVID-19 Medicare Scams
- COVID-19 Fraud Prevention – A PSA from Medicare
- Indiana SMP – Who We Are
- Indiana SMP – Volunteer Recruitment
Contact Nancy Gilmer Moore at 317.205.9201 x 207 or your local Area Agency on Aging at 800.986.3505 to volunteer or report suspected fraud.
The Indiana Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) project was supported, in part by grant number 90MPPG0066, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Administration for Community Living policy.
