Patrick Jean Lemur
HSC 533
January 7, 2013
Penelope Pattalitan EdD, MSN, FNP-BC, RN-BC
Introduction
Identity theft is becoming very easy due to technological advancements. Protecting patient information must include all efforts from medical facilities, employees, and consumers. Society has the right to be protected from any misuse of personal data. An effective protective program starts with front-end preventive safeguards and ends with follow-through that reaches wherever incorrect information has flowed
Identity theft has become a very popular topic for the past decade or so, the number of complaints has increased and is costing more than anyone wants to be spending on that issue. The Federal Trade commission estimates that as many as nine million Americans have their identity stolen each year, resulting in over 50 billion dollars of financial loss (Mercuri, 2006). Very common on Television to hear news and commercials warning about identity theft or some company trying to sell their services, helping in the fight to prevent it. In this paper, there will be discussions on the disadvantages of the break in privacy dealing with identity theft and on possible action plan to prevent the incident.
What are your Reactions? Identity theft is a fraud that occurs when one identity is taken away and used in order to gain services or something usually of financial nature. Criminal identity theft occurs when a victim’s name, address, and mostly social security number is used by a different individual other than the actual owner. Oftentimes, the imposter would obtain that information from someone with access to a data bank where personal information is stored; it may be a hospital, social security department, company that collects data for the purpose of providing financial services. The information may be sold and used to open accounts, gain access to services fraudulently, which the actual owner, a victim of the theft will be charged for.
References: American Health Management Association, [AHIMA]. “Online, On Message, On Duty: Privacy Experts Share Their Challenges.” April 2008. Available online in the FORE Library: HIM Body of Knowledge at www.ahima.org. American Health Management Association, [AHIMA] e-HIM Work Group on Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs). “Using the SSN as a Patient Identifier.” Journal of AHIMA 77, no. 3 (Mar. 2006): 56A–D. Retrieved from www.ahima.org Mercuri, R. T. (2006, June). Security Watch: Scoping identity theft. Communications of the ACM, Retrieved from: www.citeseerx.ist.psu.edu O’Brien, Jenny. “Responding to Identity Theft: One Organization’s Effort to Turn a Negative Event into a Positive Result.” Journal of AHIMA 79, no. 4 (Apr. 2008): 40–41. Retrieved from www.ahima.org