Utah · Open enrollment and scam calls

Does Medicare Call You at Home? Scam Calls in Utah (2026)

Almost never, and never to sell you something. Medicare.gov says so in one sentence, and a federal rule bars plans and agents from cold calling as well. That leaves a short list of people who may call you about Medicare this fall, and everyone else on the line is someone to hang up on. Here is the list, what a real call sounds like, and the Utah number to report the rest.

Medicare On Main Data Desk

Published September 30, 2026 · 8 min read · Reviewed by Brian Penner, 22+ years in Medicare

Plans may start advertising for 2027 on October 1, and enrollment runs October 15 to December 7. The phones start before either date. KSL's Matt Gephardt reported last September on a Lehi woman getting "call after call about Medicare from seemingly local numbers." She told him, "Every single time, they ask if you have part A and B." KSL's report noted that these calls "spike around open enrollment season."

Utah has a lot of phones to ring. The CMS monthly enrollment file counted 490,235 Utahns on Medicare in June 2026, 269,226 of them in Medicare Advantage or another Medicare health plan. Every one of them will be told this fall that something about their coverage needs attention, and some of the people saying it will be lying. The rules about who may call are short enough to keep by the phone.

The three times a real call can happen

CMS's booklet Protecting Yourself From Fraud says Medicare, or someone representing Medicare, "will only call and ask for personal information in these situations":

• "A Medicare health or drug plan can call you if you're already a member of the plan. The agent who helped you join can also call you."
• "A customer service representative from 1-800-MEDICARE can call you if you've called and left a message or a representative said that someone would call you back."
• "If you filed a report of suspected fraud, you may get a call from someone representing Medicare to follow up on the investigation."

In each one you already know the caller, or you started it. Nothing on the list covers a stranger with an offer. Medicare.gov says it directly: "Remember that Medicare will never call you to sell you anything or visit you at your home."

Who is calling, and is it allowed?

Most of the calls Utahns get are not from someone pretending to be the government. They come from call centers selling plans, or claiming to. Those have their own rule. 42 CFR § 422.2264 covers contact "by the MA organization or its agents and brokers," and § 423.2264 repeats it for Part D drug plans.

Sources: 42 CFR § 422.2264(a) and (b); CMS, Protecting Yourself From Fraud; Medicare.gov.

One caution about the "Yes" rows. A caller can say they are from your plan, and your phone can show a local number that means nothing. If a call claims to be your plan and asks for anything, hang up and dial the member number printed on your card. A real plan will not mind.

The same rule allows mail and email, as long as the email has a way to opt out. So a mailbox full of plan brochures in October is legal. A phone full of calls about them is not.

Sources: CMS Product No. 10111; CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment; 42 CFR § 422.2264(c)(3); Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services.

What a legitimate call sounds like

Agents like me spend much of the fall on the phone, so here is what the rules require of us, and what you can hold any caller to.

• You asked first. The rule says a call is not unsolicited "if the beneficiary provides consent or initiates contact," and gives the example of "calling an individual who has completed a business reply card requesting contact." If you cannot remember asking, you probably did not.
• The call is recorded. 42 CFR § 422.2274 requires that "All marketing and sales calls ... must be recorded and retained in their entirety for a minimum period of 6 years."
• The topics are the ones you agreed to. Before plan details are discussed, the agent records what you want to talk about, and may not go past it.
• Nobody asks for a bank account. CMS says plans are not allowed to "Ask for your Social Security Number, bank account number, or credit card information over the phone," or to "Ask you for payment over the phone, internet, or in person. The plan must send you a bill."
• Nobody enrolls you on a call you did not start. Medicare.gov's advice is not to "Join a Medicare health or drug plan over the phone, unless you called and asked for help."

A licensed agent does need your Medicare Number to complete an enrollment you have decided on. The 2027 Medicare & You handbook lists "insurance companies (and their licensed agents or brokers)" among the people it is appropriate to give it to. The difference is the order of events. You chose the agent, you chose the plan, and then the number is needed. A scam asks for the number first.

What the scam calls are after

Your Medicare Number. With it, a dishonest supplier can bill Medicare for equipment and tests in your name. CMS's booklet tells people to "Be suspicious of anyone that tells you" that "The equipment or service is free, and they only need your Medicare Number for their records," or that "Medicare wants you to have the item or service." The opening question the Lehi caller heard, whether she has Part A and Part B, is the start of that script. It confirms there is a number worth getting.

The second kind of call wants an enrollment. It ends with you in a plan you did not choose, sometimes without knowing it happened until a pharmacy or a doctor's office tells you the card on file is no longer active. CMS's booklet says to call 1-800-MEDICARE if "You think you were enrolled in a Medicare plan without your consent." We covered how a plan change takes effect, and how an enrollment can be cancelled before it starts, in the post on switching plans; it was written for Grand Junction, and the federal rule is the same in Utah.

The fraud fact sheet from CMS has the simplest rule: "Guard your Medicare card like it's a credit card."

If you already gave out your number

It happens to careful people. The calls are practiced and the callers are pleasant. Do these in order.

1. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). The booklet says to call "if your Medicare card is lost, or you believe someone else is using your Medicare Number." Tell them what you gave and when.
2. Watch your claims. If you have Original Medicare, log into your Medicare.gov account, where the handbook says claims "are generally available online within 24 hours after processing," or read each Medicare Summary Notice. In a Medicare Advantage plan, read the plan's statements. Look for equipment, tests or visits you never had.
3. Check that your plan is still your plan. Ask 1-800-MEDICARE which plan you are enrolled in now and whether any change is pending for January 1.
4. If you gave more than the Medicare Number, such as a Social Security or bank number, CMS points to the FTC's ID Theft Hotline at 1-877-438-4338.

Where to report a Medicare scam call in Utah

Sources: Medicare.gov; Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services; CMS, 4Rs for Fighting Medicare Fraud; CMS, Protecting Yourself From Fraud.

The Utah line is the one most people do not know about. The Senior Medicare Patrol is a national program with local offices, and in Utah it sits in the Division of Aging and Adult Services beside the SHIP counselors. The division's page describes it as a program that "empowers and assists Medicare beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers to prevent, detect, and report healthcare fraud, errors, and abuse through outreach, counseling, and education." The number, 1-800-541-7735, is the same one that reaches SHIP, so one call can cover the scam and the plan question that came with it. What SHIP counseling does is in the Utah SHIP post.

Before you call anyone, write down the date and time, the number that showed on your phone, the name the caller gave and what they asked for. Reports with details get used.

Can the calls be stopped?

Reduced, yes. The FTC's Do Not Call Registry is free: "Go to DoNotCall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 ... from the phone you want to register." It covers cell phones, the registration does not expire, and the FTC says "it can take up to 31 days for sales calls to stop." The FTC also answers its own question, "Will the Registry stop all unwanted calls?" with "No." It stops companies that follow the law, and the callers in this post are not those.

What works in practice is dull. Let numbers you do not recognize go to voicemail, including local-looking ones. If you want plan mail and calls to stop from a company you once contacted, tell them so. The federal rule treats your request for contact as good for 12 months, and plans must tell their own members at least once a year how to opt out of calls. And if an adult child helps with your mail, tell them which agent or plan you really do work with, so they know which calls are expected.

What I would do

Decide now who your Medicare people are, before the calls start. For most of our clients that is three numbers: 1-800-MEDICARE, the member line on the plan card, and the one agent they chose. Write them on a card by the phone. Anyone else who calls about Medicare between now and December 7 gets the same answer: "I don't discuss Medicare on calls I didn't make." Then hang up. You will not offend a real caller, because a real caller is on your card.

And do your plan review on a call you started. In Grand County, 33.3% of adults live with high blood pressure and 11.2% with diabetes, per CDC PLACES, and for those households next year's plan decides what prescriptions cost. That decision deserves a conversation you chose to have, with SHIP, with Medicare, or with a licensed agent you picked.

How we know all this: the Medicare On Main Data Desk frames every article with public data — here, Medicare.gov's fraud page and two CMS publications (Protecting Yourself From Fraud, Product No. 10111, and 4Rs for Fighting Medicare Fraud, Product No. 11610), quoted as published; Medicare & You 2027 (page 109); 42 CFR §§ 422.2264, 423.2264 and 422.2274, quoted as published on Cornell LII; the Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services for the Senior Medicare Patrol and SHIP line; the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry FAQs; KSL's September 12, 2025 report from Lehi; the CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment file for Utah (June 2026); and CDC PLACES county data (2023). No company, plan or premium is named. This is education, not advice; confirm plans, costs and eligibility with a licensed agent or Medicare.gov. We take no payment from any carrier to feature a plan.