Senior Medicare Patrols

The Senior Medicare Patrols are a group of volunteer organizations funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, which educate U.S. senior citizens on how to prevent, detect, and report Medicare and Medicaid fraud, error, and abuse. From the program's start in 1997 through December 2011, SMP projects and staff have led 94,000 group education sessions, held over 66,000 individual consultations, reached about 27 million people through community education events, and recovered about $106 million in Medicare and Medicaid funds. SMP has trained over 30,000 volunteers and received more than 300,000 complaints for investigation. Further, but untrackable, reductions in fraud and error likely occur because of beneficiaries' increased scrutiny of their bills.