Tucson Is One Of The Worst Cities For Medicare And Health Care Scams

Health care costs, access to health care, and quality of health care varies from state to state. This means that the frequency of scams that target vulnerable populations varies along with it.

Medicare Advantage did a study on the 20 cities with the highest number of Medicare, Medicaid, and health care scams. Tucson found its way on the list.

To determine the list, the site used the Better Business Bureau (BBB) scam tracker tool.

Data from 2015 to 2020 was analyzed, and the site found a total of 3,013 scams that were reported from across the United States.

The scams usually include phone calls, emails, letters, or event cold call visits by individuals claiming to represent an insurance organization and attempting to gather personal information or sell a phony policy.

Tucson placed number eight in the rankings with 17 reported scams. No other Arizona cities made the list.

Vienna, Ohio was number one with 34 scams, followed by Cleveland, Ohio with 32 scams and Columbus, Ohio with 19 scams.

The website states that health care, Medicare, and Medicaid scams are usually targeted at older adults. According to the federal trade commission, older adults over the age of 60 lost over $445 million to various forms of fraud in 2019 alone.

Click here to see the full list of cities.

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