Medicare: ask better questions, spot the impostors

Part 1

Cold open. Every fall, three things show up. A thick envelope from your Medicare plan, full of changes in very small print. A stream of emails that say they’re from Medicare. Some are real, and some aren’t. And sooner or later, a phone call from someone who says they’re from Medicare, and isn’t. Today, artificial intelligence — AI, for short — helps you with the envelope. And we put the fakes on the witness stand.

Part 2

Hello. Hello, friends. I’m Gay Carroll-Haring, and this is a Special episode of AI Made Simple for Seniors. As always, the person on your screen is my AI double, speaking in my real voice. I’m on Medicare myself, so that envelope shows up at my house, too. And those emails land in my inbox. Mine came in September. I put it in the in-basket on my desk and walked around it for a week. Not on Medicare yet? Stay anyway. The fake calls and emails in this video can reach anyone, and you probably know someone they’re aimed at.

Part 3

The window and the letter. First, the calendar. Medicare’s Open Enrollment runs from October fifteenth to December seventh, every year. It’s your window to change your Medicare health or drug plan. Changes you make now start January first of the following year. This year, that’s January first, 2027. Second, the letter. If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicare drug plan, your plan sends you a document each fall, usually in September, called the Annual Notice of Change. It tells you what changes in January: your costs, your coverage, and more. Nobody has ever read one for pleasure. Medicare’s advice: review it, and decide whether your plan still meets your needs. If you never got one, call your plan. Where’s the number? Look at your plan membership card. That’s the card from your plan, not your Medicare card. Your plan’s phone number is usually right on it. Lost the card? Call one, eight hundred, Medicare, and they’ll help you find your plan’s number. Have Original Medicare with no separate plan? You won’t get this letter. But you can still get free, one-on-one help reviewing your options. I’ll give you that number in just a minute.

Part 4

AI writes the questions, not the choice. So there you are at the table with the letter, and the word “tier” is sitting on the page as if you’re supposed to know what that means. You don’t have to know it. That’s the job we’re about to hand to AI: explaining the words, and helping you write down your questions. In a minute, I’ll show you exactly how. One thing before we start. If you don’t have an AI app yet, don’t worry. This Friday’s episode walks you through your very first conversation, from the very first screen. Watch this part now, so you know where we’re going, and come back to it after Friday. Here’s where AI helps, and where it stops. AI can explain the words in your Annual Notice of Change and help you write good questions. It should not pick your plan. It doesn’t know your doctors, your pharmacy or your whole situation, and it can get Medicare details wrong. Check any date or rule it gives you on Medicare dot gov. Here’s the privacy rule I call the seatbelt, because it protects you every single time: never give an AI tool your Medicare number. Describe the situation, never the person. So how do you get the words from that letter into the AI, safely? Two ways. The easiest way: copy the words, not the page. Find the sentence that confuses you, and type it in, or say it out loud. Just that sentence. There’s nothing personal in “my medicine is moving to tier three.” If a paragraph confuses you, again, just read it out loud into the AI. You can do this as many times as you like. The second way: a photo of the page. Before you take it, look the page over for anything that’s about you: your name, your address, your member number. Cover each one with a sticky note or a strip of paper. Then take the picture. If it isn’t in the picture, it can’t go anywhere. Look at the photo once more before you send it. Is your name hiding at the top of the page, or in tiny print at the bottom? If you find it, cover it, and take the picture again. Then, in your AI app, tap the plus sign, and choose your photo. Later in the season, I’ll show you, step by step, how to black things out right on your phone. For now, a sticky note does the job beautifully. Low-tech, and it works. Either way, your request might sound something like this: “My Medicare drug plan’s Annual Notice of Change says my deductible is going up, and one of my medicines is moving to a different tier. Explain ’deductible’ and ’tier’ in plain English. Then give me three questions to ask a free Medicare counselor. Please don’t recommend a plan.” No name. No Medicare number. Just the situation. And that last line keeps you in charge. Questions like these turn a thick envelope into a short, useful conversation. Write them down, and take them to someone who can see your whole picture. So who is that someone? Here’s the good news: the help is free, it’s unbiased, and it’s in every state.

Part 5

The free, unbiased help. Every state has free, one-on-one Medicare counseling, called the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, or SHIP. In California, where I live, it’s called HICAP — the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program: one, eight hundred, four three four, zero two two two. In any other state, shiphelp dot org will find yours. It costs you nothing, and it’s unbiased. And to make it easy, I’ve put the free Medicare help line for every state, all fifty, on one page of my website, with a printable copy for your refrigerator. You can also call one, eight hundred, Medicare, twenty-four hours a day, except for a few federal holidays. And one piece of advice straight from Medicare dot gov: don’t join a Medicare plan over the phone unless you called and asked for help.

Part 6

Real emails and fake ones: read the address. Now, the impostors. And they don’t only call. They email. Here’s something that surprises a lot of people: Medicare really does send email. If you signed up for updates on Medicare dot gov, or chose to get your notices online, you’ll hear from them. I do. This one arrived on October fifteenth, the first day of Open Enrollment. So how do you tell the real ones from the fakes? Start with the sender’s email address. Not the name in bold type. The actual email address. On a computer, it’s usually right next to the name. On a phone, tap the name, and the address appears. Now read it the way a lawyer reads a contract: all the way to the end. Look at the very last part, after the at sign. My real Medicare emails all come from an address that ends in medicare dot gov. Dot G-O-V belongs to the United States government. A business can’t just go out and buy one. Now look at this one. I made it up for this lesson. It says “medicare dot gov” right there in the middle, and then it keeps going. The ending is what counts, and this ending isn’t the government’s. Red flag. Here’s the honest part: a right-looking address is a good sign, not a guarantee. Clever crooks can sometimes fake the sender. So here’s the rule that never fails, and you’ll hear it from me all season: don’t click the link in the email. If it’s about your Medicare, type Medicare dot gov into your browser yourself, or call one, eight hundred, Medicare. And this, straight from the Federal Trade Commission: Medicare will never unexpectedly call, email, text, or message you on social media to ask for your Medicare, Social Security, or bank account numbers. An email that asks for those, or for money, is not from Medicare. Got a fake one? Don’t reply, and don’t click. Delete it. If you’d like to report it first, the Federal Trade Commission says to forward it to a group called the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Phishing, with a P-H, is the experts’ word for these fishing-for-your-information emails. The address is on your screen, and on my website. Emails aren’t the only way they reach you, of course. Which brings us to the call.

Part 7

Exhibit A: the “new Medicare card” call. “Hi, this is Linda from Medicare. We’re sending everyone new Medicare cards, and your old card stops working on Friday. I just need to verify your Medicare number and your bank information. There’s a small fee for the new plastic card.” That’s this week’s Exhibit A, recreated from scams the Federal Trade Commission — the FTC — has warned about. Let’s cross-examine it. One: what does it want you to do? Read out your Medicare number and your bank information, and pay a fee. The FTC is plain about this: real Medicare cards are free, and they’re mailed to you automatically. Two: what pressure is it using? A deadline, and the fear of losing your coverage. Plus “Medicare” on the caller ID, the name your phone shows when a call comes in. Caller ID is easy to fake. Never forget that. We’ll talk more about it in a later episode. Three: how do you check it yourself, without using anything it gave you? Hang up. Then call one, eight hundred, Medicare, a number you looked up yourself. Medicare’s own website says it plainly: “Medicare will never call you uninvited and ask you to give us personal or private information.” Four: what if you already acted? You were targeted by professionals. If you gave your bank information, call your bank right away. If you gave your Medicare number, call one, eight hundred, Medicare and tell them. On my website, under Stay Safe, the section called “If something already happened” walks you through the rest. The verdict? Scam. Case closed. And while we’re on the subject: I will never ask you for passwords, verification codes or money. Not in comments, not in messages, not anywhere. Anyone who does is not me.

Part 8

One assignment, one thing to tell a friend, and the close. Your one assignment: find your Medicare Annual Notice of Change. Then, before December seventh, and the earlier the better, take three written questions about it to a free Medicare counselor. AI can help you write the questions. The counselor helps with the answers. I made two free printables for you: a Medicare Question Framework, with room for your questions and your counselor’s phone number, and a Medicare Impostor Stop Card for next to the phone, with the email check on it, too. They’re on my website, Digital Confidence for Seniors dot com, along with every state’s free Medicare help line. The link is right below this video. And if you remember one thing from today, and please pass one thing along to a friend, make it this: Medicare will never call you uninvited and ask for your number. Not by phone, not by email. If someone does, hang up, and call Medicare yourself, at the number you looked up. If this helped, please subscribe, so you don’t miss the next one. And if you’ve spotted a fake Medicare email, text or call, tell me about it in the comments. Just leave out anything personal. I read every comment. Next time, on Friday: your very first conversation with AI, safely, with a script in your hand. I’m Gay Carroll-Haring. You are not behind. You are beginning. And staying curious keeps us young.