If a stranger at a health fair, pharmacy, parking lot, or community event recently offered you a free genetic cancer test — and asked for your Medicare card number — you may have been targeted by one of the most active fraud schemes in Medicare today.
Genetic testing fraud works like this: a recruiter or marketer approaches a Medicare beneficiary at a public event or through a telemarketing call and offers a "free" cancer screening or genetic test that is covered by Medicare. The beneficiary provides their Medicare number. A laboratory submits a claim to Medicare for thousands of dollars for a test the beneficiary may not actually need — and sometimes for a test the beneficiary never even received. The results may never be delivered.
