Fraud Alert: Medicare beneficiaries get unwanted COVID-19 tests

MILWAUKEE - Unwanted boxes of COVID-19 tests and fraudulent charges to Medicare prompted one Franklin woman to write to Contact 6. 

Lynn Kwiatkowski says she didn’t think much of it when the first box of at-home COVID-19 tests arrived in her mailbox. Then the packages kept coming. 

"Every couple of weeks, I’d get another box," Kwiatkowski told Contact 6. 

In four months, Kwiatkowski says she got nine packages in the mail. All contained at-home COVID-19 tests that she never wanted. 

"I thought, this is ridiculous," said Kwiatkowski. "I never requested a thing." 

Turns out, someone was charged for all of the test kits mailed to Kwiatkowski: Medicare. 

Kwiatkowski says her Medicare statements reveal medical identity theft. She spotted claims paid out to companies across the country for the COVID-19 tests. 

"They’re taking money out for nothing," said Kwiatkowski. "It’s a scam."

Over the last eight weeks, the Senior Medicare Patrol tells Contact 6 it’s seen a surge in unsolicited COVID-19 test kits arriving in mailboxes in Wisconsin and across the country. 

"Medicare fraud is a huge problem for the Medicare system," said Ingrid Kundinger, Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) project manager. "These fraudsters hope that people don’t look at these statements and never ask questions." 

Kundinger says this particular fraud was born in the months leading up to the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency on May 11. That’s when Medicare stopped covering eight monthly over-the-counter COVID-19 tests per beneficiary per month. 

"Likely, there were stockpiles of these test kits in warehouses all over the country," said Kundinger. 

The SMP’s toll-free helpline in Wisconsin has seen a significant increase in its number of calls about unwanted test kits. Beneficiaries report tests billed to their Medicare accounts, with Medicare often paying $94.08 per test.

 Kwiatkowski says after getting multiple tests in the mail, she got a new Medicare number. The tests were billed under her old Medicare number. 

Hopefully, that means she won’t get any more surprises in the mail.

It’s unclear how someone got Kwiatkowski’s Medicare number. Sometimes, scammers trick people into sharing their numbers through testing sites, telemarketing calls, text messages and social media platforms, or scammers may simply buy the numbers on the dark web. 

SMP reminds beneficiaries to review their Medicare Summary Notices (MSN) or Explanation of Benefits for possible fraud. 

If you’ve been receiving unsolicited test kits, you can call the SMP at 888-818-2611 to discuss the process of requesting a new Medicare number.