Wall Street Journal Examines Potential Effects of Medical Identity Theft on Health Care
Medical identity theft "adds a layer of complexity" to the traditional effects of identity theft because a thief can access a victim's medical information to receive care or make false claims and potentially change "the course of your future treatments if you don't catch and reverse the damage," the Wall Street Journal reports.
In 2005, about 3% of the eight million U.S. residents, or 249,000 people, who were victims of identity theft had their personal information used to obtain medical care, supplies or services, according to a 2006 Federal Trade Commission study. The Journal reports that identify thieves could negatively affect a victim's health care. For example, a thief could have a different blood type or drug allergies than their victim, and medical professionals might not detect the mixed files before administering treatment to the victim. In addition, victims could find out they have reached their health insurance spending caps or become undesirable for insurers or unemployable based on medical problems on their record.
Pam Dixon, executive director of the not-for-profit World Privacy Forum, said, "In the U.S. we have a serious and significant problem with medical identity theft." She added, "With persistence and sometimes with legal help you can clear up the financial piece of this, but the changes to your health care file, if you don't know those have been put in place you can get health care that's inappropriate or life-threatening in some cases." She said consumers often realize there is a problem only they detect inaccuracies in forms, bills or credit reports.
However, lawmakers at the state and federal level "are beginning to take notice," according to the Journal. HHS in May awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $450,000 contract to study the extent of medical identify theft in the U.S. Meanwhile, California has passed a law that companies handling medical and health insurance information must notify people when the security of their data has been compromised (Gerencher, Wall Street Journal, 6/24).
