Medical Telemarketers -- As if Caregivers Don't Have Enough to Deal With.
Today my mother got a call from a company about a back brace. She and her doctor had discussed one, so she talked to the company. She was led to believe that the doctor had contacted this company. They were going to send her a back brace and charge it to Medicare, so it wouldn't cost her anything. She gave them her information.
I talked to them when they called back and asked them specifically if my mother's doctor had contacted them. It sounded like an India boiler room. The woman on the line said, "It is written as by customer request." I said that her company had been the one who called, and had the doctor contacted them. I had to ask the question a third time before the woman said no. I cancelled the order.
We get a lot of medical telemarketing calls targeting diabetics and now, since my mother talked to her doctor about a brace, back pain. Where do the telemarketers get hold of this confidential information? Who is selling it to them? If these companies are sucking the blood of Medicare, shouldn't Medicare put a stop to it?
The companies say things like, "We send you a glucose meter at no cost to you," "We send you two weeks free of adult protection." Of course, none of it is free, it is all charged to Medicare. Because the company says it's free, the elder will give the go-ahead. People with dementia are particularly easy targets.
We get so many telemarketing calls here, medical and otherwise. And we are on two do-not-call lists. Those have proved to be completely worthless. I am so tired of dealing with these parasites.
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I, too, am on the Do Not Call List, and just recently updated my request.
18883821222 . cellphone do not call number ..
please call or email your elected representatives about these annoying medical sales calls . they cant resolve anything if they dont know whats going on ..
I don't know how the bad guys get information. I doubt my mother's doctor releases the information. I wondered if the insurance people release information. Or maybe it was the person that the doctor consulted with about the back brace. Very spooky how it happens. Every supply company in the world seems to know she's diabetic.
I'm on the National Do Not Call Registry and that has been very effective for me. I have had none of the medical supplies/devices calls.
I would be very interested in how the back-brace information leaked out. Read the hippa-required privacy statement the clinic hands out every year. Does it specifically mention anything about giving out information? After you read the statement, talk to the clinic's office manager and see if you can determine where this information is leeking out. That is dreadful.