Betty Hawley of Elsmore has no need for a catheter or a knee brace, thank you very much.
So alarms went off when she recently received a statement saying her Medicare account had been charged $8,400 for four catheters and two knee braces.
Hawley’s first step was to call her supplemental insurance company, which had paid $385 toward claims for the catheters.
“They said they couldn’t do anything about it because Medicare approved the claims,” she said.
From there, she called Medicare’s fraud line.
After they got digging, “they told me about the knee brace charges,” she said.
Medicare officials verified the equipment was ordered by a physician in Atchison from a business called Pretty in Pink Boutique in El Paso, Texas.
When Hawley called the physician’s office, personnel said they had no record of her and that the physician had since closed up shop.
Hawley’s efforts to contact the Texas business also hit a dead end.
As for Medicare taking action against either, Hawley has her doubts.
When it comes to fraud, “$8,400 is peanuts,” she said.
Which leaves Hawley, who turns 78 on Sept. 14, unsettled.
“I want to know who has my Medicare number and whether I should be issued a new one,” she said.
Being a three-time cancer survivor, she has multiple providers that have access to her insurance information.
“I worry that one of my providers or pharmacists has been hacked,” she said.
