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WILKES-BARRE — Attorney General Josh Shapiro is alerting Pennsylvania consumers to a new twist on an old scam involving their Social Security numbers.
The scam differs from traditional Social Security scams because callers are telling consumers their Social Security number has been compromised or suspended, rather than their usual tactic of saying it was stolen or demanding certain action to receive benefits.
Some consumers alleged that the scam artists are impersonating government agencies and threatening arrest, saying they must make an immediate payment to avoid jail time.
“This Consumer Protection Week, my office is warning consumers that scam artists are out in full force, employing new tactics to achieve their same nefarious goals,” Shapiro said. “I urge Pennsylvanians to be vigilant of this scam and, if you believe that you have been victimized, please contact my office immediately. We are here to protect you, and we are working hard to put an end to these scams.”
These deceptive calls tell consumers that someone is using their Social Security number in an effort to scare them into making quick decisions that can be devastatingly costly. In one circumstance, a person received a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration who told him his Social Security number had been compromised.
The man was alarmed because he had recently filed to start receiving his Social Security benefits. He then received a second call from a woman claiming to be from the County Sheriff’s office who said that multiple credit cards were opened in his name to make payments linked to terrorist groups in foreign countries and aggressively threatened him with jail time. The man had purchased about $10,000 in gift cards and read their numbers to the scammers.
Shapiro has taken action to prevent similar gift card scams targeting consumers. Last year, he announced that Walmart, Target, and Best Buy agreed to make major changes to their gift card policies to prevent gift cards sold in their stores from being used for payment in scam cases.
The three national retailers agreed to reduce their gift card limits, place restrictions on redemption of gift cards for other gift cards, and enhance employee training.
Consumers who feel they have been victimized or received a call similar to this may file a complaint with the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection by visiting the website, www.attorneygeneral.gov, or by calling the office at 1-800-441-2555.
Shapiro cautions Pennsylvanians to be on guard when answering the phone and to remember these tips when the caller is asking for information:
• Never give out or validate personal information over the phone, especially if you did not place the call.
• If the caller is asking for immediate payment by using services such as wiring money, purchasing gift cards or any other prepaid service, hang up. The caller is most likely a scam artist.
• Legitimate agencies that call you will never call to ask you to verify information or demand payments. If you are unsure of the validity of the call, hang up and look up a number for the agency that called you.
Cartwright behind bill
to make pet Rx affordable
U.S. Reps. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Florida, introduced legislation this week to protect American consumers by giving them greater freedom to choose where they fill drug prescriptions for their household pets.
The Fairness to Pet Owners Act allows pet owners to receive a copy of their pets’ prescriptions without having to request it, pay an extra fee for it, or sign a waiver or liability disclaimer. That way, they can decide to buy their pets’ medications at their local or online pharmacy, a big box retailer, or another location of their choosing.
This legislation would protect consumers by enhancing market competition, which can benefit pet owners “in the form of lower prices,” according to research on the issue by the Federal Trade Commission.
Specifically, the act would establish the right of consumers whose pets are prescribed an animal drug to receive a digital or paper copy of the veterinary prescription, at no extra cost and without having to request a copy.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, has introduced companion legislation in the U.S. Senate.
Toomey, Klobuchar introduce
bill to end medical device tax
U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, recently introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal the punitive medical device tax.
Enacted as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the medical device tax is a 2.3 percent excise tax on one of the nation’s most innovative industries, impacting the sale of a broad swath of products from pacemakers to tongue depressors.
While the tax took effect in January 2013, it has been suspended twice, with the most recent moratorium set to expire at the end of the year. Toomey and Klobuchar’s bipartisan Protect Medical Innovation Act goes a step further and finally eliminates the medical device tax.
Here’s some background on the medical device excise tax:
• The 2.3 percent levy on medical devices took effect on Jan. 1, 2013, but has been suspended since Jan. 1, 2016.
• The tax applies to gross sales, regardless of whether company makes a profit, making it particularly damaging for small medical device companies.
• Broad application of the tax hits devices from artificial hearts to tongue depressors (other examples include pacemakers, stents, defibrillators, joint replacements, and surgical tools).
• If it takes effect, the tax is projected to raise taxes by roughly $20 billion over the decade.
The majority of medical device companies are relatively small businesses: 83 percent of companies nationwide have less than $1 million in assets; 95 percent of companies have less than $10 million in assets.
According to the Department of Commerce, 29,000 jobs were lost in the industry while tax was in effect from 2013 to 2015. And researchers estimate there was a $34 million reduction in industry research and development while tax was in effect.
The American Action Forum estimates 25,000 additional jobs would be lost by 2021 if tax were to be implemented once again.
Wolf suggests ways to
tamp down health costs
Gov. Tom Wolf this week sent a letter to Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, at the senator’s request for suggestions to address the skyrocketing costs of health care and health insurance.
In the extensive letter, Wolf outlined several ways to make health care more affordable, understandable, and reliable.
Here are some of the governor’s suggestions:
• Providing comprehensive, whole-person coverage currently included in the Affordable Care Act so that consumers will be able to maintain their health rather than postpone care until conditions require sudden, intense and expensive medical intervention.
• Creating cost-effective, understandable, accurate and actionable transparency tools that give consumers the tools they need to make informed decisions.
• Moving toward value-based payments that encourage high quality, necessary care and move away from pay-for-volume structures that only incentivized the over-utilization of health care.
• Stopping the meteoric rise in prescription costs, which account for more than 20 percent of claims that insurers pay in Pennsylvania on behalf of enrollees.
• Fostering competition to decrease costs and improve quality of care.
• Embracing emerging technologies’ potential to curb escalating costs.
• Changing the scope-of-practice laws, in particular for nurses and physician assistants, which are tied to more cost-effective and productive care.
