The alarming rise in Medical Identity Thefts
There has been an alarming rise in Medical Identity Thefts in America in recent years, thanks to the increased use of electronic medical records systems built without extensive safeguards. The worst part of this scene is that people are usually unaware that they are the victims of this theft and that their medical information has been tampered with for months or even years until it shows up in collections on a credit report.
There are several ways in which these thefts can take place. In the first case, someone may get hold of the victims’ name and Social Security number and use them to receive medical services, which many hospitals are obliged to provide whether or not a person has insurance.
In cases where insurance is needed, one may steal insurance information, like the basic member ID and group policy number found on insurance cards, and receive any kind of service under the victim’s coverage. This becomes possible and easy as many doctors and hospitals do not ask for identification beyond insurance information.
If the medical information is stolen by insiders at a medical office, the personal insurance data and related information from the operation’s computerized medical records can be used to make fraudulent billing claims.
Medical identity thefts may come as a shock to the victims when revealed as the insurance companies may simply continue to pay the fraudulent claims without the victim’s knowledge and when the victim makes a genuine claim he gets to know that his benefits have already been exhausted.
HIPAA does not prove to be much help in case of medical identity thefts. In fact, they can actually work against you because once your medical information is intermingled with someone else’s, you may have trouble accessing your files as in keeping with the privacy laws, even the thief’s medical information now contained in your records must be kept confidential. Again, even after correcting the record, the erroneous information may have been passed on to dozens of other health care providers and insurers.
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