Rhode Island's attorney general is warning about a scam artist posing as a representative from the state's health insurance exchange to get personal information from Medicare patients.
Peter Kilmartin says his office was alerted that Rhode Island Medicare patients were receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be a representative of HealthSource RI.
He says the male caller requested personal information, including the patient's Medicare number.
Kilmartin is reminding residents to never provide that number to anyone over the telephone. He says it can be used to set up fake businesses to bill Medicare for health-related items that are never provided to the Medicare subscriber.
Kilmartin says his office confirmed with HealthSource RI that the agency never contacts people over the phone to ask for such information.
