Medical Telemarketers -- As if Caregivers Don't Have Enough to Deal With.

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.