 Ableton On Air is sponsored by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to be home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support comes together. Media sponsors for Ableton On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners with Ableton On Air include Yachad New York and New England, where everyone belongs, and the Orthodox Union. Ableton On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, and www.h.com. Hello and welcome to this edition of Ableton On Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the different label. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. And by the way, Arlene is here today. Say hi, Arlene. Okay. And by the way, we would like to thank Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many other supporters and sponsors for this educational program that, by the way, has been in Vermont and beyond for the last 25-plus years. I've been a journalist in this area, but for the last eight years we've been here in Vermont. And we would like to say thank you again to our supporters and sponsors. On this part two of scams, I finally took a mask off, on this part two of scams, we would like to go through, last time with part one, this is part two, we would like to go through the Bernie Madoff case. Now people with special needs have gone through a lot of scams lately, whether it be medical scams or other scams, but let's go through the Bernie Madoff case. Now Bernie Madoff was a Ponzi schemer who died in prison at the age of 82 according to Associated Press. Bernard Madoff, the infamous architect with an epic security swindle that burned thousands of investors, outfox regulators, and earned him a 150-year prison term died behind bars last Wednesday at 82 years old. Madoff's death at the federal level, at the Federal Medical Center in Burton, North Carolina, has been confirmed by his lawyer and the borough of prisons. Last year Madoff's lawyer unsuccessfully asked the court to release him from prison during coronavirus pandemic, said he suffered from end-stage renal failure and chronic medical conditions. One of these lawyers, Brandon Sample, said last Wednesday it was believed that Madoff died from natural causes due to his failing health. In the article from the Associated Press, going on to say, for a decade, Madoff enjoyed an image of a self-made financial guru whose mightest touch defied market fluctuations. A former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market said that he attracted and devoted legion of investment clients from Florida retirees to celebrities such as film director Stephen Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon, and hall of fame pitcher Sandy Kofax. But his investment advisory business was exposed in 2008 as a Ponzi scheme that wiped out people's fortunes and ruined charities. He became so hated that he was bulletproof. He was he was bulletproof vesta court. The fraud was believed to be the largest Wall Street Ponzi scheme in history. Over the years court-appointed trustees laboring to unwind the scheme have recovered more than 14 billion dollars of an estimated 17.5 billion. Investors put into the mightest business at this time at the time of Madoff's arrest. His fake account statements were telling clients that he had holdings worth more than 60 billion dollars. Madoff pleaded guilty in March of 2009 to securities fraud and other charges saying he was deeply sorry and ashamed. Getting to this, like I said, there are different scams. But if you're scammed out of money, your heart earned money, especially if you're a retiree or a person with a disability, that's not good. Last show we spoke about us being scammed out of a certain amount of money when you go to a dentist. You have to be really careful. As a matter of fact, let's quickly type of medical scams. Let's go through that. No, no, no, but just medical scams. Okay. Talk about health care fraud for a minute. Five common types of health care fraud and how to report your suspicions. There are five types of health care fraud in the United States and the world and how to report that. In terms of federal, if you suspect health care fraud, now this is important, if you suspect health care fraud in any way, you may be able to report your suspicions under the federal guidelines, K-TAM provisions, which allow private individuals the opportunity to share their information with the federal government in exchange for a percentage reward of the ultimate settlement of verdict. Now, number five, you must be aware of the following schemes. Okay. Kickback schemes. Kickbacks are rampant in the health care industry. In general, it's unlawful for any doctor or medical facility to receive anything of value, cash, equity or gifts of another doctor. Health care facility, health care facility, pharmaceutical company, medical device, manufacturer or other of anywhere, of anyone else to refer patients at a certain rate, to meet a certain quota or prescribe a specific medication. Okay. Then there's medically unnecessary services. Well, obviously, if I got to go to a dentist, I go to a dentist. But there are medically unnecessary services. Medicaid and Medicare only reimburse for procedures and expenses that are medically necessary. If you believe your doctor is suggesting procedures, imaging or other medical process can only minimally related to your condition or it does not seem relevant to your treatment, the referral may be medically unnecessary in violation of federal health care rules. Number three, this is number three. That was number four. This is number three. Failure to properly charge Medicare and Medicaid patients for prescriptions. In a March case, March 2, 2014 case, a popular grocery store pharmacy was found to be offering in-store discounts to customers not receiving Medicare and Medicaid coverage while charging the government full price for the same medication for Medicare and Medicaid patients. This is a violation of program rules and can offer a result in a successful false claims act against the pharmacy. Under the rules of pharmacy may charge Medicare and Medicaid patients fair market value for the drug, which can be the same amount. Now, before I go to number two, anything you want to say in regards to that? Try not to eat while I'm talking to you. Okay. Allowing nurses and staff to perform examinations. Under Medicare and Medicaid billing rules, certain procedures may only be performed by a physician. An emergency trend, however, is to allow nurses or office staff to handle routine outpatient procedures while billing the government for the cost of doctor time to perform the work. In this case, this comes to getting a whistleblower attorney. The conversation is free and will remain confidential. A whistleblower is something where a whistleblower is someone that sees something wrong and reports it immediately as known as a whistleblower attorney. Number one, upcoding. Probably the most common method of defrauding the government, upcoding involves billing services that were either never rendered or billing for one similar service, similar but cheaper service actually provided. Similar practice describes number two above in this website. Illegally, upcoding costs of federal government, millions of dollars per case can be detected through the review of a bill. For more information on this information, you can go to www.burgermontalk.com and dash QTAM healthcare fraud. Healthcare fraud is millions and millions of dollars in this country that should never happen. There are several services here in the state of Vermont that people can avail themselves to. One of them is the attorney general's office. Let me see. Attorney general, state of Vermont. Okay. Attorney general's office. Scam attempts remaining high. Let me see here. Okay. Top in terms of 2020, I'm going to the according to the VT digger here. The top 10 scams of 2020 of last year released by the attorney general's office of Vermont. This is according to March 3rd, 2021, and the VT digger www.VTDigger.com. Vermonters filed 5,021 scams that were reported to the attorney general's consumer assistance program CAP in 2020. The social security number phishing scam is where people claim to be, you know, this is social security office, your number has been compromised. According to attorney general TJ Donovan, who urges Vermonters to take it slow, scammers will pressure you to act fast, demanding personal information and payment while threatening extreme consequences. If you do not comply, do not let them pressure you. Let me ask this also. If you according to the attorney general's office, if you suspect a call, wait, I just had, okay. If you suspect anything, contact the attorney general's office by going to www.AGO.vermont.gov forward slash CAP forward slash stopping scams. The office of attorney general TJ Donovan, if you suspect a scam, you can track a scam by signing up at the attorney general's office website, signed for scam alerts. This is, and we have a couple of minutes left here, scam and fraud cost Vermonters thousands of dollars each year. Scammers use each tool available to steal money and information from consumers. Since most scams originate overseas most and use sophisticated technology, the attorney general's office cannot stop them with traditional law enforcement means alone. To stop scams we must work together to protect Vermonters from losses, scams and fraud. Here's how. Get involved. Knowledge is power. You can sign up on the Facebook page or Federal Trade Commission scams alerts site. You can spread the word. You can stop the scam. The most common scams for people to be aware of, IRS debt collection number one, computer tech support, phishing, debt collection, business targeted scams, unclaimed funds, grants, rebates and settlements, phoning, medical products and supplies insurance and prescription scams, phoning prizes, lotteries and sweepstakes, grand, now, grandparent and other imposter scams. Hello, this is a relative. I'm in jail. I need such and such money to get out of jail. That's a big scam. Craig's list online scams, but the medical scams is a huge, huge one. So let's click that. Callers claim to be Medicare and Medicaid seeking personal information or claiming the authorized provider and medical supplies, prescriptions or other services. Please, according to the Attorney General's office, please verify with your insurance provider separately or your physician. Never, never give out your security number or information to a caller. Okay. And the phishing scam is more important too. Attempts to collect personal and sensitive information, which typically is used to steal someone's identity in most common phishing scams. The perpetrator is claimed to call from a person's bank and requires personal information to reactivate their account. Never give personal information. So security number, house number, cell phone number, family number, stauses number, any information like that. Now, now, yeah. Personal information. I don't answer the phone. Yeah. Calls, now talk about the gift card scams. This is calls, mailing, emailing, claims that you are eligible for a government grant and unclaimed rebate or settlement that may be used for unclaimed funds. No legitimate grant will require you to pay a fee for processing. If you find that out and there are unclaimed funds in your name, please contact the Vermont, Vermont Treasurer's office. So as you see, there are a lot of scams out there and we must beware of those. If someone claims to be from Social Security, hang up. If someone claims to be from the IRS, hang up. If someone claims to be one of the biggest scams, I think, is Publishers Clearinghouse. Just going to say that they're the biggest, oh, you. Yeah. I'm sorry. We're not scammers. Yes, you are. I'm sorry, Ed McMahon, but we do not believe in your calls. Rest in peace, Ed McMahon, with the Publishers Clearinghouse, but those are the things you, and if they decide to, if the Publishers Clearinghouse sends you a package, don't do it. Don't sign up. Yeah. So real quick, three things that people with special needs or anybody watching this program should be aware of. The IRS doesn't call you. They send you a letter. Okay. If a person with a disability has been swindled, that's the word, has been swindled with a Social Security scam or claims to be scammed, you can contact the national number for Social Security, 1-800-772-1213. That number again for Social Security Administration, 1-800-772-1213. And for those Vermonters who need help with the Attorney General's Office, you can go to www.ago.vermont.gov.capstoppingscams. Again, www.ago.vermont.gov.cap forward slash stopping scams. Okay. Again, this puts an end to, you know, we care about our special Vermonters, and we care about Vermonters, and it's extremely important that you guys be aware of and keep your wallet safe. If anyone has been suspected of ID theft or has Yeah. Yeah. No, but if anyone has been, has had their wallet stolen, stolen lately. Police. Yeah. Yeah. This is how, wait, wait, wait. I'm not, I'm not finished yet. Hold on one second. Don't jump the gun, please. If you've been, if you have gotten your wallet stolen or any ID stolen, please contact your local police department, contact your credit card companies and stop your credit cards immediately. And one more time that social security number, if you've been the victim of theft of your social security numbers or your social security card or you need a replacement, please call 1-800-772-1213 and they will send you a a social security application, you know, so on and so forth. This puts an end to this edition of Ableton On Air. Thank you to our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many, many others. I'm Loren Seiler. I'm Loren Seiler. See you next time. Please be careful. Ableton On Air is sponsored by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to be home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support comes together. Media sponsors for Ableton On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx dot info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners with Ableton On Air include Yachad New York and New England, where everyone belongs, and the Orthodox Union. Ableton On Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx dot info, and www.h.com.