May 2021--This post is a little different than what I normally post. I try to stay positive, but today--it's more of a venting session. So bear with me.
I'm really disappointed with the good ol' folks at Medicare. As if it wasn't bad enough getting daily calls--numerous calls each and every day--about an extended warranty for my car. Now I'm getting calls on my cell phone pretty much every day from so-called "health agencies."
I have an app on my phone that tells me when it's likely spam or a neighborhood spoofing call, so I usually don't answer them anymore. When I did answer all of them (pre-app days), the caller would tell me that according to my report, they are following up on my backaches, stiff joints, etc. Do I complain about those things? Yup. Who at my age hasn't complained about those things.
I'd question which report they're talking about. From whom? Never could get an answer about the illustrious report, but I totally believe they were phishing for information.
The other day--I ignored three calls within a matter of minutes. The caller ID on my cell identified them as possible spam. Don't ask me why but I answered the fourth call. I was asked to confirm I was a Medicare subscriber. I asked why I would need to confirm that information. They wouldn't give me an answer, so I wouldn't confirm. Then I was asked whether or not I have taken a saliva test. A saliva test? I asked why I would have taken a saliva test. The answer? "Oh, don't worry, Medicare will pay for it." That wasn't what I asked, so I asked again. I was told it was so I could find out if I've passed along any disease or other health concerns to my children and grandchildren.
Still without confirming anything, I politely told them no thank you and disconnected the call. (I was going to say I "hung up" but I'm pretty sure no one under the age of 55 would understand what "hung up" meant. 😏 )
While waiting for a service technician to show today, my cell phone rang and the caller ID said it was from Oak Lawn--which happened to be the town where the repair company is located. I assumed it was the company letting me know the tech would be at my house soon. Well, it wasn't.
The young man actually seemed excited that I answered the call. I'm guessing he must make hundreds of calls each day and rarely does anyone answer. He asked me my name. I replied he should have it since he was calling me. Then he replied with my legal name (which not many people know) and said Medicare told them I should have a cardiac test. When I asked why--he talked about the report. (Ah, here we go again with "the report.") According to Jason (yes, I got his name), the report says I need to be checked to make sure I don't have a heart murmur or any other heart concerns. I tried to be polite because I realize Jason is just doing his job--it is so hard...but I did politely ask him to remove me from his call list. I could almost hear his smirk when he said, "I"ll remove you from my list but I can't guarantee you're not on other lists."
This was the second time a caller mentioned Medicare somewhere in the conversation so I went to the Medicare website. It immediately asks you to put in your email address and right underneath it says it will never sell your email address.
Ok, so maybe not my email address. But how about my other personal information--like my name and cell phone number? And possibly any health-related information?
On the Medicare website, I read through the oh-so fine print about how they protect our "personal identifier" like name, personal email address, home mailing address or personal or mobile phone number in accordance with the law. But I'm not even sure exactly which law it is they're referring to. There's also a paragraph that talks about third-party websites with which they share information. Bingo! That's got to be it. So I looked up the third-party services currently being used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in conjunction with medicare.gov and found it includes BING, Google Advertising Services, Integral Ad Services, Media Math, Yahoo Gemini, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pandora, Twitch, Resonate and The Trade Desk. And, the list goes on.
The CMS site says it distributes information in accordance with security measures and privacy practiced by the connected site (i.e. the ones listed above). So, I guess this means I need to go to each of these listed above and see with whom they share my information. I'm sure that list is long, too.
I never really care who had what information on me. I'm not doing anything illegal or anything I think would or could cause embarrassment to me or my family and friends. You want to sell my email address to a marketing company that will try to sell me something? Who knows, maybe it will be something I want. Feel free to scroll my Facebook pages. If you think I may be interested in something, go ahead and show me the ad. I don't have to click on it.
I have felt like it was only a slight invasion of my privacy. But now it's getting more up-close and personal--more in my face. It is annoying to be disrupted each and every day by these unwanted calls. And it's concerning there are all of these people out there who--without my blatant consent--have some of my personal information and quite possibly personal information about my health.
Maybe it's not Medicare--maybe it's the third-party people who are sharing my information. Too ironic that the vast majority of people calling now are questioning my health. I'm also going to say Dodge distributed my information because how else would all these callers know the warranty on my car really has expired.
Have to go now. My phone is ringing. Hoping this time it's just an old friend wanting to catch up.
Take it one day at a time...
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