SHERMAN, TX - The Texoma Council of Government says medicare fraud is on the rise, and they say education and awareness is the best way to prevent senior citizens from being taken advantage of.
So they're teaming up with Texas Senior Medicare Patrol to train volunteers to fight healthcare fraud.

"This is really about preventing fraud protecting and empowering the seniors to actively participate in that effort." said T-COG Executive Director, Susan Thomas.

And that's exactly what this new training program aims to do.
Senior Medicare Patrol will hold a 2 day training seminar at T-COG in Sherman next month, and local volunteers are already gearing up for the classes.

"We know there's fraud in medicare and medicaid I think we need to make people more aware of it make people conscientious not to accept programs that are not legitimate." said volunteer, Daniel Schores.

T-COG says last year, nationwide, medicare fraud reached 6 billion dollars.
S-M-P's program will train volunteers to avoid, detect, and most importantly, prevent healthcare fraud.
They'll learn how to protect their personal information, recognize scams, and how to report to the proper authorities.

Texoma Council of Government says they're overwhelmed and outnumbered by the amount of companies offering products and services to senior citizens so they really count on volunteers for programs like this to help cut down on medicare fraud.

"Obviously there's a shortage of funding here at tcog and in state and so there needs to be something done about the problem." volunteer, Maurine Gross.

Maurine Gross has volunteered at a local nursing home for almost 14 years now, so she's seen many elderly people fall victim to medicare scams, such as companies providing unnecessary services, charging for services that were never provided or falsely claiming that medicare will cover all expenses.

"It's really important to empower the senior population in our region to not only protect themselves but to help protect their friends and colleagues." Thomas said.