Medical Identity Theft
Abstract
Medical identity theft is rapidly growing. Medical identity theft is when someone takes your medical identity and uses it to get medical care and/or financial gain. There is ways to help protect yourself from this crime you need to check your medical information. If you find errors you need to file a police report and give copies of the police report to the appropriate people. You also have to get the errors you find in your medical records corrected, which can be hard to do because your information could be in multiple locations. Medical Identity Theft What is medical identity theft? How many people have been victimized by this crime? Ways to protect yourself from this crime. What to do if you have already been a victim of this crime, why it is important to fix the errors on your medical record if you have been a victim of medical identity theft.
Medical identity theft is when someone uses your personal identity to use your medical insurance benefits to get free medical services and/or make false claims to gain financial assistance by using your identity. Medical identity theft accounts for 3 percent of identity theft crimes, or 249,000 of the estimated 8.3 million people who have had their identities stolen in 2005, according to the Federal Trade Commission. It is estimated that people who are affected by this crime are left with $40,000 + in bills for services they never used. Medical identity theft can take place in private doctor’s offices, hospital’s, or pharmacy’s. A single person or a group could be involved in this crime. Some people fear that with the electronic medical records from paper that it may be easier to get peoples medical identity. Many people don’t even realize that they have been a victim of this crime until months to years down the road. Something’s you can do if you’re a victim or think you could be a victim or to protect your medical identity. You should monitor your explanation of benefits at least once a year. Look
Medical identity theft is rapidly growing. Medical identity theft is when someone takes your medical identity and uses it to get medical care and/or financial gain. There is ways to help protect yourself from this crime you need to check your medical information. If you find errors you need to file a police report and give copies of the police report to the appropriate people. You also have to get the errors you find in your medical records corrected, which can be hard to do because your information could be in multiple locations. Medical Identity Theft What is medical identity theft? How many people have been victimized by this crime? Ways to protect yourself from this crime. What to do if you have already been a victim of this crime, why it is important to fix the errors on your medical record if you have been a victim of medical identity theft.
Medical identity theft is when someone uses your personal identity to use your medical insurance benefits to get free medical services and/or make false claims to gain financial assistance by using your identity. Medical identity theft accounts for 3 percent of identity theft crimes, or 249,000 of the estimated 8.3 million people who have had their identities stolen in 2005, according to the Federal Trade Commission. It is estimated that people who are affected by this crime are left with $40,000 + in bills for services they never used. Medical identity theft can take place in private doctor’s offices, hospital’s, or pharmacy’s. A single person or a group could be involved in this crime. Some people fear that with the electronic medical records from paper that it may be easier to get peoples medical identity. Many people don’t even realize that they have been a victim of this crime until months to years down the road. Something’s you can do if you’re a victim or think you could be a victim or to protect your medical identity. You should monitor your explanation of benefits at least once a year. Look
References: www.identitytheftprotection.org/blog/2009/06/medical-identity-theft/ http://health.usnews.com/articles/health.living-well-usn/2008/02/29/medical-identity-theft-turns-patient http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_039058.hcsp?dDocname=bok1_0 www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/health/13patient.html?_hp