Health Care Scams Tend to Spike During Open Enrollment

While evaluating your options for health care during Open Enrollment season, watch out for scammers targeting your money and personal information. Scammers often take advantage of people who have questions and concerns during open enrollment periods by trying to confuse or mislead them.

Some common scam tactics include calls- including robocalls, emails, or texts from scammers pretending to be government entities or insurance providers, and free health screenings or gifts described as "special offers."

For example, scam robocalls falsely claim to offer plans from well-known health insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) and Cigna.

The real BCBS offers fraud prevention advice on its website, warning that it has received complaints about scammers who use spoofing to make it appear that calls are coming from its national "Call Blue" customer-service number (888-630-2583). However, the toll-free number can only receive incoming calls, according to BCBS, and they do not use that number to make calls. So if the "Call Blue" customer service number appears on your caller ID, the call is malicious and you should not answer.

Here are some more tips to help you avoid becoming a victim during Open Enrollment season:

• Don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognize, even if the number in your caller ID appears to be local. If you do answer the phone, but you become suspicious that the call isn't legitimate, don't hang on, hang up.
• Take care in considering offers you receive by phone or text by checking the health-care company's official web site. Using contact information there, contact the company to ask about the offer to make sure it's legitimate.
• Decline promotional gifts in exchange for personal information. Beware of any "free" offers.
• Never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, Medicare ID numbers, mother's maiden names, passwords, or other identifying information in response to unexpected calls or if you are at all suspicious.
• If you get an inquiry from someone who says they represent a healthcare company or a government agency, hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to verify the authenticity of the request.
• Contact legitimate health care insurance providers directly, using the customer service number on a billing statement or by finding a contact number on the provider's website.

What You Can Do

If you think that you're a victim of a health care enrollment scam, you should first contact law enforcement to report it. You can also report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. You can file a complaint about phone scams with the FCC Consumer Complaint Center.

If you are unsure about whether an insurance plan is valid, contact your state insurance commissioner's office. You can also call the customer service number on the plan's official website to speak with an official representative for that plan.

For information on health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, visit healthcare.gov, and for information on Medicare, visit medicare.gov.

To learn more about how to avoid robocalls and caller ID spoofing scams, visit fcc.gov/robocalls, which provides a list of call-blocking and labeling resources.

Read the FCC Complaint Center FAQ to learn more about the FCC's informal complaint process, including how to file a complaint, and what happens after a complaint is filed.