Medical Identity Theft
Posted by WhiteCoat on March 13, 2008
This is an article that everyone should read.
Medical identity theft is a growing threat.
HIPAA allows for penalties up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison when health information is used for “personal gain or malicious harm,” but the feds have to develop enough gonads to enforce this law.
One way to significantly diminish the threat of identity theft is to require a national identity card when obtaining medical care. No card, no service - unless you have an emergency medical condition. Take pictures and scan fingerprints of the people if you have to.
Requiring a verification of identity before receiving care would also make it significantly more difficult for drug seekers to get medications from 10 different providers - all the patient’s physician visits and prescriptions could be called up with the swipe of a card.
We require a positive ID with the banking industry and feed all financial account information into a national database.
Why is the medical industry still so far behind?
March 13, 2008 at 9:50 am
Good Point. I just read another article about people stealing identities and then filing false tax returns under that name to collect refunds! What a total disaster!
March 13, 2008 at 5:19 pm
This is disturbing!
I knew about SS# fraud but not medical.
I saw a documentary where parents discovered their infant son had bad credit that perpetuated even after it was proven to be identity theft. Someone from the hospital records department had given out the number but I don’t recall the details. The police didn’t help and it was the mother who did all the work to solve it.
There was also a man who had his SS# stolen and he lost his job and marriage over all the awful events that occurred because of the identity theft. He also had a hard time getting hired in a new job because of his bad credit info, etc. Again…don’t remember all the details.
He said they don’t want to issue you a new social security # but I think in the end he did get one. But now here you are midlife with no proof that you paid mortgages or anything that establishes a good credit history.
I stopped carrying my SS card a long time ago and my knee jerk reaction was to not carry my health card but as pointed out in the article…there are many opportunities in the process to steal the info.
Many pts that came into the hospital would get annoyed that they had to present their ID along with their insurance card, especially when they frequented the hospital and knew who they were. The auditors expect to see the documentation along with the chart. And it is for both their and the provider protection.
So what can we do?
I guess be sure to review all EOB’s you receive. Should be anyway. but perhaps even better…go on line and set up your medical account with your insurance company so that you can be privy to any unusual activity that isn’t familiar. I do use the pharmacy on line to order meds and for tax receipts at the end of the year but this will motivate me to set up the whole thing.
Thanks for the info Whitecoat.
March 13, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Medical and Character Identity Theft occurrences are outpacing financial identity theft 3 to 1 and the hospitals are primarily to blame. The lack of hospital policy to validate and verify a patients identity by simple cross-checking (see Red Flag Rules, Section 114 of FACTA) is an epidemic in operation policy stupidity.
HIPPA, FACTA and to a certain extent, GLB all provide enforcement and penalty components aimed directly at the hospital and medical practices and procedures with regard to non-public/personal information of patients and employees. The FTC is enforcing the legislation, the hospitals are blatantly ignoring it, opting to take a “when it happens to us and we get caught” attitude. Once hospitals are fined severely and CEO’s start receiving jail time for data breaches, things will start to change.
But why wait for them, as a consumer, you should be proactive right now and protect yourself from all forms of identity theft including Medical, Character/Criminal, Financial, SSN and DMV. Consumer education and proactive efforts on an individuals part to protect their identity can no longer be taken with a grain of salt. Medical and character identity theft can kill you!
Remainder of comment deleted by administrator
March 13, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Wow…this is scary. I have personal identity theft insurance as a rider to my homeowners policy. It covers finanical loss involved in identity theft, but it doesn’t cover the mental stress involved. I could not imagine the emergency medical implications….
March 13, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Actually, the first HIPAA conviction was for identity theft (and there’s an interesting analysis of the case here, which basically says it wasn’t an actual HIPAA violation at all), but they used HIPAA, maybe to get a headline and maybe because it was easier.
The thing is, I think there have been only 3 or 4 total prosecutions for HIPAA violations since it began being enforced. No one respects a dog with no teeth.
March 18, 2008 at 6:53 pm
A few posts back Dr Anonymous put up a post called, “Google Your private health Information?”
Here is an excerpt from that post: “What if I told you that companies like Google and Microsoft will soon have the opportunity to handle your private medical information? Maybe this is information that you do not want anyone else to know - other than - say your doctor? Earlier this week the state of Tennessee announced a partnership with AT&T for the first statewide network to share health information.
An article in today’s Washington Post states that the Cleveland Clinic, in association with Google, will be starting a pilot project that is aimed at putting personal electronic health records in the hands of consumers. (I’ve talked about personal health records on this blog in the past)”
You can read the rest over at the Dr Anonymous blog.
The idea of our private medical records being in the hands of people outside the medical industry is mind boggling to me. Maybe I don’t understand…but I don’t like it one bit. At a time when we have more concern about identity theft then ever or concern that our info could be used against us…it would seem it is the last thing we need.
April 21, 2008 at 5:00 pm
you can have Lifelock protection and you can even have it for your kids for free in 30 days by using their special link: when you avail.
July 11, 2008 at 12:42 pm
TrustedID - “you can have Lifelock protection and you can even have it for your kids for free in 30 days by using their special link”
By my understanding, LifeLock does not protect you from Medical Identity Theft.
http://idtheftnews.wordpress.com/
July 26, 2008 at 1:49 pm
There are many ways that people can steal our identity. One, many people don’t own a shredder. Use it. And second, be carefull about who and where you place your information.