Information on beneficiaries can only be accessed by "competent authorities", meaning police and tax inspectors, plus bankers, lawyers and accountants making money laundering checks.
It is high time European politicians took actions to reinforce controls in the 16,000 other bonded warehouses in the EU, where little if no custom checks are taking place and no information about beneficiary owners," Mr Bouvier told the BBC.
National Claims History files contained information on beneficiary diagnoses, utilization of services, and Medicare payments made to providers for these services.
The data included beneficiary information on insurance times, age and sex, as well as diagnoses made in the ambulatory sector and claims made to long-term care insurance.
Valeria Allen, an insurance specialist at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, "Someone is fraudulently impersonating or misrepresenting Medicare by telephone and by door-to-door visits to beneficiaries' homes, to discuss the Medicare discount drug program and to obtain personal identifying information from beneficiaries".
(d)Information to beneficiaries and participants.
"We're merely imparting information to beneficiaries," Ms. Ignagni said.
Medicare officials told investigators that prescription drug plans could not share information on beneficiaries.
In some cases, Ms. Allen said, the caller seems to have obtained personal information about beneficiaries before visiting their homes.
The board would contract with insurers operating on both a local and national basis and would provide information to beneficiaries about their options".
Medicare officials had told insurers they could accept incomplete applications on Monday, provided they followed up immediately to get the missing information from beneficiaries.
