Every year, millions of American consumers — nearly 7% of the population — are victims of scams and fraud. In 2017, the number of fraud victims in the US reached 16.7 million, with $16.8 billion lost.
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For more than 45 years, I’ve worked with, advised and consulted with the FBI and hundreds of financial institutions, corporations and government agencies around the world to help them in their fight against fraud.

But my expertise began more than 50 years ago, in an unusual way: I was one of the world’s most famous con artists. While I’m ashamed of what I did as a young man — cheating, stealing and, along the way, deceiving and hurting people — I was grateful for the opportunity to turn myself around.

My story, which is depicted in my 1980 memoir, “Catch Me If You Can,” gave me a wider audience to talk about fraud prevention.

Protect your identity

Identity theft is the deliberate use of someone else’s identity (e.g., name, address, Social Security number, bank accounts) to get money and credit, obtain employment, steal property, falsify educational and other credentials, access healthcare and more.

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"I don’t need to worry about drug prices. I have insurance!”
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At GoodRx, we hear people say this all the time. After all, isn’t that what health insurance is for? You pay your premium and then insurance pays for your medical bills. Right?

If you use GoodRx, you probably already know that prescription drug insurance isn’t what it used to be. Not long ago, most Americans had generous prescription benefits as part of their insurance. You probably remember $10 copays and never being shocked at the pharmacy counter.

So, what’s changed? In general, health insurance is simply paying for less than it used to. The cost of healthcare has gone up, payors (whether the insurance company, your employer, or even the government) need to control their costs and they shuffle that cost to you, the patient, in different ways. As a consumer, you need to watch out for these “features” of your insurance policy, all of which could cost you at the pharmacy counter:
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• Deductibles. Most plans these days have deductibles, where you’re responsible for your own costs up to a certain limit. In fact, deductibles are increasing faster than wages in the US. Some common plans now have up to a $5,000 deductible! Many Americans now have high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), which means we’re on the hook for most of our healthcare costs throughout the year.
• Formularies. Formularies are the list of drugs that insurers cover—and they’re shrinking. Fewer drugs are being covered and more drugs are being excluded. If your drug is not on the list, you might be hit with the full cash price of the drug unless you find other ways to save.
• Tiers. Formularies often price drugs by tier; each tier indicates how much you’ll pay for a covered drug. Recently, more and more tiers have been added to increase your copay. A Tier 1 drug might be a $10 co-pay, a Tier 2 might be $30, etc. There are now some plans that have up to six tiers.
• Copay vs. co-insurance. Sound confusing? It’s not. A copay is a set amount your insurance requires you to pay for a drug, regardless of its retail price. Co-insurance means you’re responsible for a percentage of the drug’s full price. More and more, plans are moving to co-insurance, which could mean significant increases for you.
• Prior authorization. Just because a drug is on formulary doesn’t mean your prescription is covered. Even when a drug is on formulary, some insurers require patients to also get approval for the drug before they’re allowed to fill their prescription. It often means getting a doctor to send in a prior authorization form—and there’s no guarantee they will approve it.
• Step therapy. To contain costs, insurers prefer that you use cheaper drugs before trying more expensive ones—and they often insist on it with step therapy. If a drug you prefer requires step therapy, you have to try another (typically cheaper) drug first and provide evidence that it didn’t work before your insurer will approve your preferred (typically more expensive) drug.
• Quantity limits: To ensure patient safety and keep costs low, most insurers will limit the amount of certain drugs you can purchase in a given time period. Quantity limits may be day-to-day, week-to-week or month-to-month and will differ between drugs. Drugs typically under quantity limit restrictions are those that are intended for short-term use, have serious side effects when overused or have high potential for abuse.

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Medicare Part D is the federal government health insurance plan that covers prescription medications. Maybe you just enrolled, or you’ve been on a plan for a while and were recently prescribed an expensive brand name drug. Whatever the case, you might be surprised by your out-of-pocket costs. Even with Medicare, medication expenses can pile up, costing some patients several thousand dollars a year. 

Unfortunately, drug manufacturer discounts and copay coupons can’t help since they’re not available to people who have health coverage through the government. But there are still many resources available if you’re looking to save on your medications.

State resources

Depending on where you live, your state may offer programs to help. A good place to start is your local Department of Aging. This office of the United States Department of Health & Human Services can help you find the best Medicare plan for the coverage you need.
Some states even have their own cost-savings programs for older adults. For example, Pennsylvania runs PACE and PACENET. These programs offer low-cost prescription medications if you meet certain qualifications.

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