Kathleen Pursell, program director of the Arkansas SMP Program for the Arkansas DHS Division of Aging, Adult, & Behavioral Health Services, spoke to Oaklawn Rotary Club on Monday about recognizing, avoiding and reporting Medicare fraud.
Introduced by Rotarian of the Day Charlene Hooten, Pursell said that SMP stands for Senior Medicare Patrol. Arkansas SMP is a federally funded program that recruits volunteers, mostly retirees on Medicare, to teach their peers to be responsible health care consumers by recognizing, reporting, and preventing health care fraud.
"Every year, billions of dollars in Medicare fraud, error and abuse negatively impact seniors by driving up the cost of services," the club said in a news release.
Each attending Rotarian received a packet of information designed to protect health care benefits and personal information, recognize, avoid and report possible fraud and scams, and assume ownership of health costs.
For more information about Arkansas SMP, visit http://www.ar.gov/SMP or call 866-726-2916.
Guests are welcome to attend an Oaklawn Rotary meeting by calling 501-655-1878 in advance.