Description

Royce Medical Supply which is supposedly, according to their website, an orthopedic supplier of braces. I discovered yesterday on a statement from my Medicare Supplement plan that they were billed, thru Medicare, for $1900 a month May through October 2023 for a total of $11,400. I never heard of this company and I did not receive any medical supplies during these months. I contacted my Medicare supplement plan provider who told me it was under investigation and I should call Medicare. However, they likely would have paid the balance at some point. They told me the bill was for urinary catheter devices. I do not use or need this type of device nor have I ever contacted Royce for any other type of device. Also, I learned that their phone number is not in service. I checked my Medicare claims and saw that they actually did pay scammer Royce Medical nearly $9000 of the bill and then forwarded it to my supplement company to pay the other 20%. I contacted Medicare and was connected to the DME fraud department. They thanked me and told me to keep watching my statements. From what I understand, Medicare has no way of preventing future payments to this company for me or others because they have no way of blocking payments to these fraudulent/criminal "companies". There needs to be some type of fraud detection, prevention, and pursuit of these criminals but it seems there is nothing, similar to the millions of scammers making calls, especially to vulnerable seniors. I did not lose any money personally, but Medicare lost money in my name. Medicare will not be able to recover the payments because this company and phone number doesn't exist. I posted this on Facebook and Nextdoor and learned that others have had their insurance providers/Medicare billed/defrauded for the same unneeded devices and other medical devices by this company and other similar companies. I am also concerned about how this company gained access to my personal Medicare information and why these claims were paid for these devices without a doctor's prescription or verification. I fear that BBB is not actually an effective resource because I doubt insurance providers and Medicare check your site for reports before paying claims. Is there any legal or Justice Department arm affiliated to investigate and stop these criminals?