Wichita Falls ranks 10th for health scams targeting seniors
Wichita Falls ranked 10th in a recent report as one of the most dangerous cities for health scams targeting seniors.
MedicareAdvantage.com used information from the Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker to see which cities have the most scam attempts.
The report said seniors are particularly vulnerable to fraud attempts amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period.
Of all the reported health care scams in Texas, 17.5 percent occurred in Wichita Falls.
Thankfully, on average, older adults in Texas only lost about $100 per scam.
There may very well be even more fraud schemes than anyone knows about as the Office for Victims of Crime estimate up to 85 percent of fraud crimes go unreported.
The study looked at data from 2015-2020 and found a total of 3,013 health care-related scams reported in the United States.
The Federal Trade Commission estimates adults age 60 or over lost more than $445 million in various forms of fraud in 2019 alone.
The top 10 worst cities for health care/Medicaid/Medicare scams include:
- Vienna, Ohio – 34 scams
- Cleveland, Ohio – 32 scams
- Columbus, Ohio – 19 scams
- Boise, Idaho – 19 scams
- Tyler, Texas – 17 scams
- Los Angeles, California – 17 scams
- Louisville, Kentucky – 16 scams
- Tucson, Arizona, 15 scams
- Amarillo, Texas – 15 scams
- Wichita Falls, Texas – 14 scams
Among the top 20 most dangerous cities for health care scams there are five Texas cities including Tyler, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, San Antonio and Houston.
The top three U.S. cities for health care scams were all in Ohio. The top city for such scams was Vienna, Ohio, a small town of just 4,000 residents, which had 34 such scams.
In total, Ohio took five of the top 20 spots for dangerous cities for health care scams.
Scams that target older adults can include phone calls, letters, emails or even in-person visits from people claiming to represent an insurance company.
These scammers may attempt to gather personal information or sell a phony health care policy.
Other scams may use a person’s Medicare information to receive health care services using their identity.
Some unscrupulous health care providers may even commit fraudulent acts through illegal Medicare billing or claiming services that were unnecessary or never provided.
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged through the United States, so did health-related scams.
The worst hit city for COVID-related fraud was Memphis, Tennessee, with at least 56 reported COVID-19 scams. This figure was three times the rate of COVID scams in New York City.
San Antonio came in third on the list of 20 hardest hit cities for COVID scams.
Cities with a higher percentage of older residents tended to see higher average dollars lost per scam.
Brookings, Oregon, with a senior population of just over 33 percent, saw an average loss for seniors of $2,534. The Villages, Florida, with nearly 57 percent of the population being over age 65, saw an average loss of $1,915. While the population of seniors in Prescott, Arizona, is nearly identical to that of Brookings, Oregon, these Arizona seniors only lost an average of $14 per scam.
Read More: Wichita Falls ranks 10th for health scams targeting seniors