The DNA testing scam reported in Kentucky might be more widespread, Bloomberg reports.
Louisville's WAVE 3 News reported earlier this month that people in unmarked vans were approaching homeless and other underprivileged populations, offering them cash for a DNA swab. The Kentucky attorney general later expressed concerns that the people in unmarked vans — who said they were from Passport Health Plan, the state's Medicaid insurer, something it denies — might try to make fraudulent Medicaid claims based on the data they collected.
Bloomberg says that this isn't isolated to Louisville, but has also been reported in Nebraska, and adds there are concerns that this might be a new form of an old scam in which people are tricked into handing over sensitive information or partaking in unneeded medical tests. This, it says, could lead to a combination of identity theft and fraudulent Medicaid or Medicare billing.