Yuma Officials Warn Medicare Recipients of Local Hospital Phone Scam

Callers claiming to represent Yuma Regional Medical Center have been contacting local Medicare recipients with a deceptive pitch: your Medicare card has expired and you need to verify your information immediately. The card hasn't expired. Medicare cards never expire.

Onvida Health, the parent organization of Yuma Regional Medical Center, joined the Yuma Police Department on Wednesday to issue a public warning about the scheme. Marc Chasin, Onvida's Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, confirmed that the calls are fraudulent and have no connection to Onvida Health or Yuma Regional Medical Center. Yuma Police public affairs Sgt. Lori Franklin urged anyone who receives one of these calls to hang up without engaging and report the attempt to local law enforcement.

The scam is particularly difficult to spot because callers are spoofing their phone numbers, meaning a recognized local health system name can appear on a recipient's caller ID even though the call originates from a fraudulent source.

The goal is personal data. Scammers use the expired-card pretext to collect Medicare numbers, Social Security details, and other identifying information that can be used for identity theft or to bill Medicare for services never rendered.

If a parent or family member receives one of these calls, authorities say the response should be immediate and consistent: do not share any personal, financial, or insurance information; do not trust caller ID; and hang up. From there, report the call to the Yuma Police Department. Victims or potential victims can also contact Onvida Health's cybersecurity team directly at CyberSecurityTeam@onvidahealth.org, reach Medicare at 1-800-633-4227, or call the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General fraud hotline at 1-800-HHS-TIPS. Both contact options are worth forwarding to any Medicare-eligible family member in the area.

Yuma's large Medicare-eligible population and cross-border healthcare patterns make it a predictable target for scams that exploit trusted local institutions. When a familiar name like Yuma Regional Medical Center appears on caller ID, the instinct to comply is understandable. That instinct is exactly what these callers are counting on.