Medical identity theft becoming an increasing problem

Medical identity theft is becoming an ever-increasing issue, and with credit card theft, once an identity thief gets hold of enough information they can easily assume another identity and obtain medical services under the name of another person.

The number of medical identity theft cases has grown rapidly. As many as 500,000 Americans have been victims of medical identify theft, according to the World Privacy Forum. The World Privacy Form compiled statistics on medical identity theft for the period 1992 through 2006. According to the 2006 report, the Federal Trade Commission received almost 19,500 reports of medical ID theft between January 1992 to April 2006. About one every four reports were received in 2006. A second report on medical identity theft is currently being finalized, which is likely to be published in early 2010.

According to Government Technology Newsletter (www.govtech.com), medical identity theft is  comparatively lucrative as compared to other forms of identity theft. A stolen Social Security number has an estimated street value of $1 per identity; stolen medical identity information averaged $50 per identity in 2008. At one medical clinic in Weston, Florida, a front desk clerk downloaded information of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave it to a cousin who made $2.8 million in false Medicare claims.

Medical ID theft is not something people consider and don't safeguard against. In fact, you can be victimized and have no idea for years, unless false information in your records comes to light when you seek medical care. Once you have become a victim of medical identity theft, you may find that the thieves charged large hospital bills in your name and then disappeared. This can wreak havoc on your credit report, and can take years to straighten out. In the meantime, you may have to deal with collections agencies and could even lose out on a car loan, mortgage or even an employment opportunity.

Fraudulent medical claims can even max out your health insurance coverage and leave you with no health insurance in an emergency. There can be darker consequences. If your records contain wrong information such as blood type or information about medications that you are (or are not) allergic to, your life or long-term health could be put into jeopardy if you are given the wrong medication or blood type in an emergency.

In addition to the possibility of receiving incorrect treatment due to medical identity theft, there are a number of other possible consequences. These include

• False medical and pharmaceutical bills
• False health insurance claims
• Denial of health insurance claims
• Denial of health insurance coverage
• Denial of life insurance claims
• Denial of life insurance coverage
• Denial of employment based on false medical history
• Time and expense correcting false patient records
• Time and expense correcting false insurance records

There are some concrete steps that you can take to find out about possible fraudulent information in your medical records. If you are worried about medical identity theft, or feel that you may be a victim, read the World Privacy Forum's “What to do if you are a victim of medical ID theft” consumer tips,  released in May 2006 and updated regularly.