Adults aged 80 or more years have reported to the Federal Trade Commission median losses of $1,800 per person due to fraud so far this year, according to new data released Wednesday along with a report to Congress.
Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul has until Nov. 1 to answer several questions from the chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging about what the administration is doing to protect older adults, including those with cognitive impairments, from Social Security scams.
In separate cases on opposite sides of the country, former senior living employees have been sentenced to prison time and ordered to pay restitution for stealing money from residents.
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In one case, 35 defendants associated with dozens of telemedicine companies and cancer genetic testing laboratories fraudulently billed Medicare more than $2.1 billion for cancer genetic tests that “capitalized on the fears of elderly Americans,” authorities said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he is “aggressively prosecuting” cases against the former owner and nine former managers or employees of a now-closed assisted living facility who have been charged with a total of 76 counts.
A Chicago businessman and his company have agreed to pay more than $2.25 million to settle charges against him without admitting or denying that he defrauded investors in the Orthodox Jewish community who invested in assisted living communities and nursing homes throughout the Midwest, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
North Dakota has become the final state to have a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The entities investigate and prosecute Medicaid provider fraud and resident / patient abuse and neglect in assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities and other healthcare facilities.
Former Florida assisted living and skilled nursing facility owner Philip Esformes has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a case that the federal government continues to describe as “the largest healthcare fraud scheme charged by the U.S. Justice Department.”
Several bills under consideration in Congress aim to protect older adults and others from robocalls, the second-most reported complaint to the Senate Special Aging Committee’s Fraud Hotline last year, committee members said Wednesday during a hearing on the topic.
