Did you know there’s a privacy crime that can kill? I’m not talking about the death of a career or the death of a business. I’m talking about medical identity theft.
Medical identity theft is a quickly growing problem that very few patients are aware of. Even though this type of crime has affected almost 2 million Americans, a recent study found that only 15% of insured adults are familiar with medical identity theft.
“A stolen medical identity has a $50 street value, whereas a stolen social security number… only sells for $1,” Nationwide Insurance Chief Privacy Officer Kirk Herath said in a statement. “However, while most people are very careful with their social security number to protect their credit and personal information, they tend to be less careful when it comes to their medical information.”
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Medical identity theft takes place when someone uses another person’s name and personal identifying information to get medical services, devices or prescription drugs.
When a patient’s medical identity is stolen, the fraudster's medical information is added to the victim's medical records. This false information can lead to an inaccurate medical history or incorrect diagnosis.
Other consequences can include:
While patients carry a lot of the burden of preventing medical ID theft, healthcare providers aren’t off the hook. In fact, the California Department of Justice recently published a Medical Identity Theft guide, which gives providers three steps for protecting patients from medical identity theft:
If your office uses electronic health record (EHR) systems, you should use role-based access controls. These controls will limit access to only the information employees need to perform their jobs.
Knowing your patients is the next step toward protecting against medical identity theft. Here are some things you can do to make sure you’re not treating an identity thief:
Warning signs include:
When handing patients a copy of their records at the end of a visit, be sure to ask them to verify the accuracy of the information. Patients who access electronic documents should also confirm that their information is correct.
Obviously, there is no surefire way to prevent medical ID theft or fraud. But if you follow these guidelines, you can rest easy knowing you’ve done your part to protect patient identities.