Medical identity theft is another type of identity fraud, which can involve illegal acts of changing medical records and manipulating insurance information. It is a particular kind of identity theft that has received little attention.

It occurs when someone uses your personal information to obtain payment for, medical treatment, services, or goods. When this happens, the thief’s treatments could show up on records, which will rip you of your benefits and also disqualify you from any new health insurance.

Medical identity theft is the newest frontier in the ever-evolving crime of identity theft and it is not only serious but also very dangerous. It is particularly heinous in that it attacks individuals at their most vulnerable moments.

It is becoming more common because it is so easy for Someone who has your information and needs medical care to pretend to be you. Medical Identity Theft is the fastest growing type of the 5 types of identity theft, with at least 500,000 cases per year (because of HIPAA it’s difficult to get an accurate figure).

Victims do not have clear pathways for recourse and recovery. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows for greater recourse for victims of financial identity theft than the HIPAA health privacy rule provides for victims of medical identity theft.

Victims can be left with huge bills for services they never received, along with legal, medical and insurance-fraud issues, and ruined credit that can take years to untangle. Victims may have had their medical records altered without their permission, consent, and often knowledge. False entries can range from minor changes to substantial changes that can introduce potentially life-threatening medical errors.

Requesting a patient’s valid photo ID before treatment at hospitals and treatment centers should be a common practice to help mitigate the problem. A related form of identity theft is someone fraudulently billing procedures or tests that are never done to someone else’s insurance.

To help stop and prevent this type of theft request access to your medical records from your health insurer and your health care providers. Among the steps to take is a request for an accounting of disclosures. Request a copy of your medical records to review. In most cases, your copies must be given to you within 30 days.HOw to

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 11th, 2009 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.