Is that call really from Medicare?

Part seventeen of Healthcare in Retirement. Medicare's Open Enrollment Period runs October 15 through December 7. The phone will ring. Some of those calls will be exactly who they say they are, and some will be very good at sounding that way: a voice can now be copied from a thirty-second video, and the people who do it know exactly what week Open Enrollment starts. I am not an advisor. I am an engineer, and I take this part seriously. Here is how to know who is on the other end.

Does Medicare ever call me?

Almost never, and never to sell. Medicare's fraud page puts it in one sentence: "Medicare will never call you to sell you anything or visit you at your home." The same page lists the only reasons Medicare or a plan it works with will call at all: you called first and they are calling back, you joined a plan, you reported fraud, or you left a message. And it tells you who should ever see your Medicare Number: your doctor, "or people you know should have it," such as an insurer acting on your behalf. So a caller who opens with "this is Medicare" and needs to verify your number has already told you two false things. Medicare did not call, and Medicare does not need the number it issued you.

Can a plan or an agent cold-call me during Open Enrollment?

Not without your permission, by federal rule. The marketing regulation for Medicare Advantage and drug plans says a plan and its agents may not "use telephone solicitation (that is, cold calling), robocalls, text messages, or voicemail messages" to reach people who have not asked to be contacted, and it spells out the tricks the rule was written for: calling on a referral, calling people who left a plan, calling people who attended a sales event without their express permission, and calling to "confirm" that you got something in the mail. The exception is consent. Your own plan may call you. An agent you already work with may call you, because you gave them the number. Someone you have never spoken to, calling about a plan you have never heard of, is either breaking that rule or is not who they say they are, and you do not need to work out which. Both end the same way.

What does a Medicare scam sound like?

Like someone you know, and that is the whole point. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center counts the damage every year, and its 2025 annual report has the numbers for people 60 and older: 201,266 complaints, up 37% from 2024; $7.748 billion in reported losses, up 59%; an average loss of $38,500; and 12,444 people who lost more than $100,000. Those are the people who reported. Elsewhere in the same report, the FBI warns that fake voices and images are "becoming increasingly difficult to detect and easier to make." The versions I hear about most are three. A voice that sounds like a grandchild in trouble and needs money before anyone else can be told. A recorded voice announcing that Medicare is issuing new cards, or that your plan is being cancelled, and you need only confirm your number to keep coverage. And a caller with your name, your ZIP code, and the name of a real plan in your county, which used to prove legitimacy and no longer proves anything, because all three are on the internet.

What should I do when the phone rings in October?

Here is what I say when my phone rings in October, two sentences, and then I hang up: "I don't handle Medicare on incoming calls. I'll call the number on my card." In my experience it holds up against every version above, because it does not ask me to decide who is calling in the moment. Then do what you said: the number on the back of your plan card, or 1-800-MEDICARE, 1-800-633-4227, which is also the number Medicare gives for reporting a suspicious call. If the caller was legitimate, they will be there when you call back. If the voice was your grandchild, your grandchild will answer their own phone. In my house we also use a word, a plain one, that a cloned voice would not know, and anyone in the family asking for money on the phone gets asked for it. Nobody has ever been offended. And never, on any incoming call, confirm your Medicare Number "so they can pull up your file." Nobody who legitimately has your file needs you to read it to them.

Is a text message or an email any different?

No, and the rule above already covers them: the same regulation that forbids cold calls forbids unsolicited "text messages, or voicemail messages" from plans and their agents. A text that says your plan needs you to click a link to keep your coverage, or an email from "Medicare" with a form attached, gets the same two sentences, just typed instead of spoken, and then the same phone call to the number on your card. One habit that helps with all of it: never use a phone number or a link that arrived in the message. The real number is printed on the card in your wallet and on the letter your plan mailed you in September, and neither of those can be spoofed.

What a Certified Medicare Planner® does differently

They are the person you called. That is the difference, and it is the whole difference. A planner does not need your Medicare Number to answer a question, and when an enrollment you asked for requires it, you will be sitting across a desk or on a call you placed, and you will know exactly why. They know which calls in October are real, because they know which plans are actually sold in your county and what a legitimate plan letter looks like. And they are the right person to hand a suspicious letter or a strange voicemail to, because they have seen the current crop and they will tell you in a minute. The advisors are at 602-281-3898.

Friday, October 2. Foothills Library, Glendale, 10:30 AM. Mustang Library, Scottsdale, 2:30 PM. No cost. Register at 123easymedicare.com/medicare-workshop or call (877) 220-1089.

This event is presented by 123EasyMedicare, a brand of American Retirement Advisors, an independent, private organization. It is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Medicare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration, or any government agency. The libraries are not sponsors of, and are not affiliated with, this event. Educational only; not tax, legal, or insurance advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. It is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise representative of Medicare or the federal Medicare program. American Retirement Advisors is not a government agency. For official Medicare information, visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).