5 surprising places medicare fraudsters lurk

3. ON A TELEHEALTH VISIT. Executives of telehealth companies have paid clinicians to order unnecessary durable medical equipment, genetic tests, other diagnostic tests or pain medications,

Justice Department officials say. The clinician may have a brief phone call with a patient — or no contact whatsoever. Last July, a telehealth company owner in South Florida pleaded guilty

to generating and selling doctors’ orders used to defraud Medicare of more than $21 million. 4. ON A STREET CORNER. Bad actors known as patient recruiters or marketers “hit the streets, they

go to bus stops, they go senior homes — things of that nature,” Medina says. As an opening pitch, they might tell an older American, ‘Hey, you look like your knee hurts. If you give me your

Medicare number, I'll get you a massage.'" The bad actor can sell a patient's Medicare information to a shady durable medical equipment firm or a lab. Then, sham

invoices are credited and Medicare is saddled with the bill. 5. IN YOUR HOME. Home health consists of part-time, medically necessary services ordered by a physician and covered by Medicare.

The services could be skilled-care nursing or physical therapy, for example. Bad actors lie when they complete patient assessments and exaggerate what help they need. “The sicker someone is,

the more you get paid,” is the fraudster's mindset, Medina says. _Katherine Skiba covers scams and fraud for AARP. Previously she was a reporter with the _Chicago Tribune, U.S. News

& World Report_, and the _Milwaukee Journal Sentinel_. She was a recipient of Harvard University's Nieman Fellowship and is the author of the book, _Sister in the Band of Brothers:

Embedded with the 101st Airborne in Iraq_._