When someone says Identity Theft, most often the first thing people think of is credit cards and bank statements.  There are television commercials about it, credit card companies bragging about their theft deterrence systems and zero liability programs, and notices are regularly provided to consumers providing tips on how to prevent it from happening. There’s even one company that will guarantee your identity will not be stolen. (Please read their fine print)  While financial identity theft can be devastating, it’s only part of the story.  The fastest area of identity theft is Medical Identity Theft (MIT). Just what is MIT?  It occurs when criminals obtain information such as a health insurance identification or Social Security number and use it to get health care, medical test, Medicaid benefits or to obtain reimbursement from insurers and others for false claims. That means your medical history and health care records can include someone else's information. This can be life threatening: for example, causing a transfusion of the wrong blood type or adding medical conditions they don’t have – can result in dangerous mistakes in an emergency.  Additionally, the changes can create issues with employment, life insurance, rates can go up or benefits cancelled, or you could owe thousands of dollars for a procedure you never had.

Many experts are recommending or providing credit monitoring as a solution; but what is it about someone using your medical information that would ever make you think that it could be detected by credit monitoring?  Offering credit monitoring for MIT will soon test whether or not some insurance agent’s E&O insurance policies work because that’s what has been offered in some high-profile data losses lately. Since most insurance agents do not know any better, they assure their clients that credit monitoring will provide adequate protection, but when their clients find out that it doesn’t, they might be suing their insurance agent for bad information. 

Victims of financial identity theft can depend on rights such as the ability to see and correct errors in their credit report, the ability to file fraud alerts, the right to obtain documents or information relating to transactions involving their personal information, and the right to prevent consumer reporting agencies (such as credit bureaus) from reporting information that has resulted from identity theft. By contrast, victims of MIT do not have a similar complete set of rights or redresses.  In some cases, victims have not been allowed to even review the compromised files, nor do they have the right to prevent healthcare providers, medical clearinghouses, or insurers from reporting and re-reporting information that has resulted from identity theft.

As medical identity theft continues to grow as a crime and a social, financial, security and health concern, questions of liability to healthcare providers who fail to provide sufficient protection for patient data become more crucial. In light of the criminal and health considerations, the litigious environment of the United States, and existing and emerging laws concerning business owner’s responsibility and liability for the protection of personal data, ALL healthcare providers need to be proactive to protect the data of their customers, vendors, contractors and, increasingly, their employees.  If unchecked, healthcare providers may never have certainty that the medical records they are relying on to provide care belong to the person who is being treated and patients may be equally uncertain that the records being used to treat them or determine whether a certain type of care is appropriate is based on their medical information, or fraudulently based on the records of an identity thief.

If you would like more information on having a proactive strategy and to have a complete wall of security, please contact Michael Hill at IDT Consultants, LLC at 404-216-3751. We are Group Security Specialist and Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist.

Forsyth County Classifieds: Identity Theft