{"id":278295,"date":"2026-10-20T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/english-medicare-open-enrollment-scams-the-medicare-fraud-of-the-month-for-october\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:45:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:45:05","slug":"english-medicare-open-enrollment-scams-the-medicare-fraud-of-the-month-for-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/english-medicare-open-enrollment-scams-the-medicare-fraud-of-the-month-for-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicare Open Enrollment Scams: &#8220;The Medicare Fraud of the Month for October&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"xn-newslines\">\n<h1 class=\"xn-hedline\">Medicare Open Enrollment Scams: &#8220;The Medicare Fraud of the Month for October&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p class=\"xn-distributor\">PR Newswire<\/p>\n<p class=\"xn-dateline\">ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 20, 2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"xn-content\">\n<p><span class=\"legendSpanClass\">ALBANY, N.Y.<\/span>, <span class=\"legendSpanClass\">Oct. 20, 2026<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; The New York StateWide Senior Action Council (StateWide), a 54-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs and well-being of our State&#8217;s more than 3.6 million senior citizens, today announced its <b>Medicare Fraud of the Month<\/b>\u00a0<b>for<\/b>\u00a0<b>October: Medicare Open Enrollment Scams.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The StateWide Fraud of the Month is a component of the <b>Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP)<\/b>, the definitive resource for New York State&#8217;s older adults and caregivers to detect, prevent, and report healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse. StateWide is New York&#8217;s grantee\/administrator for this Federal Program.<\/p>\n<p>Maria Alvarez, Executive Director of StateWide, explains, &#8220;The Medicare Open Enrollment Period, October 15 through December 15,\u00a0can be an open season for scammers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>StateWide advises Seniors to look for these warning signs:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><b>Someone claims to be endorsed by or represent Medicare:<\/b>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Plans or providers cannot imply Medicare endorsement and may not use the Medicare name or logo in materials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>A provider asks for a Medicare Number or bank information prior to enrollment: <\/b>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>This information can be used for enrollment in plans without permission.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>A provider pressures a Medicare recipient to act fast:<\/b>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Medicare coverage will not be lost if a plan is not selected quickly. Enrollees have the entire open enrollment period to make plan selections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>A provider offers gifts to encourage enrollment at an event or fair:<\/b>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Event gifts must be given to all attendees regardless of enrollment and not exceeding $15 in value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Alvarez concluded, &#8220;If you suspect your Medicare number has been compromised or you&#8217;ve been enrolled in a plan without your permission, contact the NYS Senior Medicare Patrol at StateWide.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our counselors provide FREE, unbiased, confidential information about Medicare enrollment options including prescription drug plans.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>The New York State Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) can be reached at 800-333-4374 or by <\/b><b>visiting <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/edge.prnewswire.com\/c\/link\/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=4801171-1&amp;h=2054564110&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysenior.org%2F&amp;a=www.nysenior.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><b>www.nysenior.org<\/b><\/a><b>.<\/b>\u00a0StateWide has trained counselors to help Medicare beneficiaries in the fight against Medicare fraud.<\/p>\n<p>StateWide also provides information and educational presentations, assistance regarding any Medicare questions, plan comparisons, appeals,\u00a0billing issues and patients&#8217; rights to all seniors throughout New York State.<\/p>\n<p>It is estimated that Medicare fraud costs taxpayers over $60 billion dollars nationally per year. To help combat this illicit industry StateWide announced its <b>Fraud of the Month<\/b>\u00a0program in 2022 to highlight these scams being perpetrated on the State&#8217;s seniors.<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE New York StateWide Senior Action Council, Inc.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medicare Open Enrollment Scams: &#8220;The Medicare Fraud of the Month for October&#8221;<br \/>\n                PR Newswire<br \/>\n                ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 20, 2026<\/p>\n<p>                ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 20, 2026 \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; The New York StateWide Senior Action Council (StateWide), a 54-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs and well-being of our State&#8217;s more than 3.6 million senior citizens, today announced its Medicare Fraud of the Month\u00a0for\u00a0October: Medicare Open Enrollment Scams.<br \/>\n                The StateWide Fraud of the Month is a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interes-humano"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278295"}],"version-history":[{"count":"1","href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278296,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278295\/revisions\/278296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}