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Today my mother got a call from a company about a back brace. She and her doctor had discussed one, so she talked to the company. She was led to believe that the doctor had contacted this company. They were going to send her a back brace and charge it to Medicare, so it wouldn't cost her anything. She gave them her information.

I talked to them when they called back and asked them specifically if my mother's doctor had contacted them. It sounded like an India boiler room. The woman on the line said, "It is written as by customer request." I said that her company had been the one who called, and had the doctor contacted them. I had to ask the question a third time before the woman said no. I cancelled the order.

We get a lot of medical telemarketing calls targeting diabetics and now, since my mother talked to her doctor about a brace, back pain. Where do the telemarketers get hold of this confidential information? Who is selling it to them? If these companies are sucking the blood of Medicare, shouldn't Medicare put a stop to it?

The companies say things like, "We send you a glucose meter at no cost to you," "We send you two weeks free of adult protection." Of course, none of it is free, it is all charged to Medicare. Because the company says it's free, the elder will give the go-ahead. People with dementia are particularly easy targets.

We get so many telemarketing calls here, medical and otherwise. And we are on two do-not-call lists. Those have proved to be completely worthless. I am so tired of dealing with these parasites.

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igloo572, I just checked out that website. My only concern would be telephone numbers that are legit but being posted as telemarketers by competing companies.
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The last few weeks I've been receiving a few telemarketing calls on my cell phone. It made me wonder if they had given the go-ahead to sell the numbers to companies. So far the calls have been from "Card member services" and "Nick." I am going to use up my cell memory blocking numbers.
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The website 1-800 Notes is great for finding out the backstory on many of these calls. If you keep track of the # that called, then go to 800Notes to see what others have reported & found out on the caller, it can be quite interesting.
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Mom got a call at her ALF from "Wamart". I blocked that one. Some cordless phones have blocking capability. Read your manual.
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Don't you just love it when you answer the phone and a canned voice starts off "Hello, Seniors".... hanging up doesn't nothing, as they call again the next day, and the day after, yada, yada, yada. Sometimes if you listen to the whole spiel, they will tell you to hit 5 if you want to opt out of getting calls [or whatever number they provide]. No guarantees that someone else from another telephone number won't be calling with the same spiel.

I, too, am on the Do Not Call List, and just recently updated my request.
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the same foreign a*****e who called daily at moms house for years tried a different approach one day . said he was from medicare and wanted to verify information . i told him he was from no such s*it and i was calling my senator , which i proceded to do . ive emailed representatives many times in the last several years and quite often saw results . back when the banks were taking 10 days to pay your bills online i screamed bloody murder at all my representatives . they were deliberately keeping people in the late fee zone on their bills . in only a few days congress had bankers on the floor demanding that bills be paid instantaniosly . bankers said they couldnt do that . congress told them you can and you will . now an email is shot to creditor as soon as a bill is paid online .
18883821222 . cellphone do not call number ..
please call or email your elected representatives about these annoying medical sales calls . they cant resolve anything if they dont know whats going on ..
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I received a call to day, they said because I had responded to a television ad. This is where I had them over a barrel - I haven't had TV reception since 2006 or so. They kept insisting it was because I'd responded to a tv ad, lol.
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Besides, he's read about this illegal practice of some healthcare providers so it's not a new thing for him. Smart guy, grandpa is.
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Same as my grandpa. He gets calls like that from medical people trying to sell him stuffs he didn't need but he just ignores them. He knows they're bluffing.
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We're on the do not call registry, but it hasn't been effective. We get several calls a day. It is very disruptive and time consuming. Sometimes we get calls late at night. I have a curt "we don't do business on the phone." Still they call. It sounds like most originate from boiler rooms in India or China (from the accents and background noise).

I don't know how the bad guys get information. I doubt my mother's doctor releases the information. I wondered if the insurance people release information. Or maybe it was the person that the doctor consulted with about the back brace. Very spooky how it happens. Every supply company in the world seems to know she's diabetic.
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Yikes! You get a lot of those calls? How frustrating.

I'm on the National Do Not Call Registry and that has been very effective for me. I have had none of the medical supplies/devices calls.

I would be very interested in how the back-brace information leaked out. Read the hippa-required privacy statement the clinic hands out every year. Does it specifically mention anything about giving out information? After you read the statement, talk to the clinic's office manager and see if you can determine where this information is leeking out. That is dreadful.
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