Medical Identity Theft - You May Already Be a Victim
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On Saturday, the New York Times reported on a rapidly-growing form of fraud known as medical identity theft. In 2007, federal data was collected on medical identity theft and reported that over 250,000 Americans a year were affected by the crime. Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit World Privacy Forum, explained that the number of people whose medical identity is stolen has increased in the past 2 years with the more prevalent use of electronic medical records.
Medical identity theft comes in many forms. In some cases, thieves can steal someone's name and Social Security number and use that information to obtain emergency medical services. Another way this crime works is when someone takes your insurance information and uses it to obtain anything from routine examinations to major surgery. This is alarmingly easy because many medical providers do not ask for any other identification beyond your insurance information.
Another way your information is stolen is when someone working at a medical office downloads your personal information and then sells it or uses it themselves.
In a widely reported case in 2006, a clerk at a Cleveland Clinic branch office in Weston, Fla., downloaded the records of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave the information to her cousin, who in turn, made $2.8 million in bogus claims.
What makes medical identity theft even worse than regular identity theft is that with medical identity theft, there are none of the normal consumer protections that are in existence for victims of regular identity theft. Fraudulent charges can go unnoticed by a consumer and remain unpaid for years, causing permanent damage to your credit. With medical identity theft, even when you correct the problem with one of your medical providers, the fraud may have been passed on to multiple providers and will most likely have to be resolved on a case-by-case basis.
Certain medical providers have taken preliminary steps to install safeguards in the system, but with the new push to make all medical records electronic, advocates worry that these safeguards do not go far enough.