POMEROY — Meigs County volunteers are being solicited to participate in a Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) project in an effort to educate older adults about health-care fraud and identify theft and prevent these crimes from happening to them.

Jane Winkler, a SMP volunteer coordinator, will be working with volunteers from the eight-county area, which includes in addition to Meigs, Athens, Hocking, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Washington and Perry Counties, in organizing a SMP Patrol.

“By offering educational sessions, community outreach events and one-on-one counseling, Ohio SMP plays a vital role in preventing health-care fraud. Since this is a $60 billion a year problem, we need some devoted volunteers to help us teach tips and practices to keep our seniors safe,” said Winkler.

She announced a volunteer training session to take place Thursday, Feb. 18, 9:30 a.m. 3:30 p.m. at the Buckeye Hills Regional Development Office, 1400 Pike St., Marietta. She asked that anyone interested in the training contact her at jwinkler@proseniors.org or by calling 1-800-488-6070.

The SMP’s goal is to empower seniors to prevent health care fraud which has been described as “running rampant” across the country. Seniors everywhere are becoming the victims of scams which many times result in them receiving medical devices and equipment they neither need nor use.

The SMP is a national movement with seven Medicare Fraud Strike Force offices being established around the country. One of those offices is located in Baton Rouge, La. An Associated Press story about that operation says the goal of the agency is to “teach seniors to recognize Medicare fraud before it happens and to protect the country’s health care system from the wide variety of scams aimed at older citizens.”

While Beth Shaver, executive director of the Meigs County Council on Aging, says she has not really heard many complaints from seniors, that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. She said she will talk to some of the retired senior volunteers to encourage participation in the training program.

She also said she believes some seniors have a lack of knowledge and understanding about Medicare reports, such as explanation of benefits, and could benefit from counseling. This would fit right in with the SMP project since local volunteers could teach older residents to recognize Medicare fraud which in the long term will help protect the country’s health care system.