Senior Medicare Patrol

MISSION

Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) empowers and assists Medicare beneficiaries, their families and caregivers to prevent, detect and report health care fraud, errors and abuse through outreach, counseling and education. SMPs are grant-funded projects of the federal U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL). Their work is in three main areas:

Conduct Outreach and Education - SMPs give presentations to groups, exhibit at events, and work one-on-one with Medicare beneficiaries. Since 1997 more than 30 million people have been reached during community education events, more than 6.5 million beneficiaries have been educated and served and more than 46,000 volunteers have been active.
Engage Volunteers - Protecting older persons’ health, finances and medical identity while saving precious Medicare dollars is a cause that attracts civic-minded Americans. The SMP program engages over 5,200 volunteers nationally who collectively contribute more than 155,000 hours each year.
Receive Beneficiary Complaints - When Medicare beneficiaries, caregivers and family members bring their complaints to the SMP, the SMP makes a determination about whether or not fraud, errors or abuse is suspected. When fraud or abuse is suspected, they make referrals to the appropriate state and federal agencies for further investigation.
 
For more information about Medicare Fraud Protection, visit www.smpresource.org.

BECOME A VOLUNTEER

The SMP program offers volunteers an opportunity to make an important difference in their communities. Volunteers take pride in working to ensure that the Medicare program will be protected for future generations. In 2014, 53 Senior Medicare Patrol projects had 5,249 active volunteers. Since 1997, more than 46,000 volunteers have helped the SMP program.
 

WHAT SMP VOLUNTEERS DO

SMP projects match a volunteer’s skills and interests to the needs of the program. As a result, SMP volunteers may serve Medicare beneficiaries, their families and caregivers in many creative ways. However, there are six types of activities most commonly conducted by SMP volunteers nationwide:

1. Assisting with administration: help with work such as copying, filing, data entry and placing outbound phone calls in support of SMP activity.
2. Distributing information: help with transporting and disseminating SMP information materials to sites and events; may include presenting prepared copy or performing scripted activities for small groups.
3. Staffing exhibits: help by staffing information kiosks or exhibits at events such as health fairs; also may provide general information about SMP to the public and answer basic questions.
4. Making group presentations: help by giving presentations on SMP topics to small and large groups; may interact with the audience by answering questions and through discussion.
5. Counseling: help by having direct conversations with beneficiaries about their individual situations; may include review of personal information such as Medicare Summary Notices, billing statements and other related financial and health documents.
6. Managing complex interactions: help with in-depth interactions with beneficiaries who are reporting specific instances of health care fraud, errors and abuse; may act on behalf of a beneficiary to correct an error or refer suspected fraud and abuse to the appropriate authorities.