After providing cheek swab samples to a company that promised to determine their cancer risk, Ken and Judy Johnson's Medicare accounts were billed thousands of dollars, CBS This Morning reports.
This, it adds, is part of a recent rise in Medicare fraud in which marketers set up tables at events where senior citizens may be or go door-to-door to persuade them to provide not only a DNA sample, but also their Medicare account number. CBS notes that the Johnsons, who were promised genetic testing results within a few weeks haven't received them even a year later — though their Medicare accounts were charged more than $10,000 in Judy's case and more than $8,300 in Ken's.
Homeless people in Kentucky and others in Nebraska have also been targeted by similar scams. And CBS News reports that it has found individuals in Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina whose Medicare accounts were charged a respective $7,000, more than $10,000, and $21,000 after being approached by marketers of such schemes.
The government, CBS News adds, has issued warnings about this, saying that "only a doctor you know and trust should order and approve any requests for genetic testing."