Medical Identity Theft is when a thief uses your name or health insurance number to see a doctor, get prescription drugs, file claims with your insurance provider, or get other care.

There are many ways that an identity thief can get access to your medical records. They could be an employee at the hospital or doctor’s office or at the Health Insurance Company.  The identity thief could be a janitor, courier or 3^rd party data entry person. Insider fraud is on the rise.  This is where employees inside the healthcare system are stealing patient’s information to make false insurance claims.  An insider was behind the theft of more than 1,100 Medicare beneficiaries’ medical identities at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL a few years ago that resulted in over $2.8 million in false Medicare claims!

However, one of the biggest threats to Medical Identity Theft is a data breach.  A survey conducted by The Ponemon Institute on behalf of ID Experts finds that 45% of the 80 health care organizations experienced more that 5 breaches and that 51% of them suffered and incident involving the theft of medical records.

According to the Office of Civil Rights, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been 64,150 data breaches nationwide since October of 2009, including 24,429 in 2012 alone.  This is where a hacker gets access to a database that stores the patient information.  Then they either use or sell the information or both.

I’m reminded of a story I heard about a 22-year-old marine that had lost his wallet while celebrating with some friends.  He didn’t think much of it until a little over a year later; his mother called him and told him he was the lead suspect in a car theft.  He had moved away from the area but it turns out that an identity thief used his military ID and driver’s license to test drive new cars which he would later steal.  Not only that but he visited hospitals on several occasions to treat kidney stones and an injured hand, running up nearly $20,000 in medical charges.  The marine found out about the unpaid hospital bills only after he checked his credit report.  The worst part is that no one really knew how to help him to restore his identity.  You see medical identity theft is harder to prove that financial identity theft.  And sometimes can be more damaging.  Your medical records could now be tainted with information or a medical condition that is not yours.  In the event that you do need medical help it could be confusing to determine the proper treatment you should get or even cause you some harm.  Also many times the hospitals turn over the delinquent medical bills to collection agencies that might not be as willing to work with you.

In Part 2 we will discuss what you can do to protect yourself. Click here to view Part 2.

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