Medical Identity Theft â What is It?

Medical identity theft is a criminal act that occurs when a person uses another person personal information, such as name and insurance card number, without that person knowledge to obtain or make false claims for medical services or goods.

The main reason for this crime is that people are unable to get medical coverage easily and pay for the high health bills , and so the difficult times can drive many people to take very desperate measures.

This crime can occur in private doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals. Identity theft can be committed by individuals, doctors, nurses, lab technicians, receptionists, ( actually all the workers in the medical field) or organized criminal gangs.

This kind of theft is far more difficult to detect than its financial counterpart (which in some cases can be discovered quickly should an unauthorized charge appear on your credit card ) and requires a highly proactive approach to both identifying instances of fraud and lessening the chance that you will fall victim to the crime.

Medical identity theft takes two forms: physician identification numbers that are stolen and used to bill for services, and patient identification information stolen and used to obtain services or to bill for services.

Medical identity theft is not a new problem but because Identity thieves traditionally target a victim’s bank accounts or credit cards or else use a victim’s information to establish credit for credit cards, loans or even utilities in a victim’s name , the medical identity theft is less known.

Remember Medical identity theft is dangerous to both your wallet and your health because a person’s medical information is used without their knowledge, but because their actual medical history and records may be altered as a result of the unauthorized use.

When medical identity theft occurs, you may never even know it happened because unless you have a medical condition, you could keep your insurance card in your wallet or purse and rarely ever use it. The complications it can cause can threaten the life of you or your loved ones for example blood types can be changed, diagnoses you never actually got can be put into your records and much more very scary things could happen.

Imagine getting into an accident and losing a lot of blood not realizing an identity theft had occurred and now your records show your blood type as A instead of B. If you get a pint of the wrong type, serious problems or death may occur. You also may end up with extremely high medical bills. If someone bills your insurance for a broken leg, you may be responsible for much of the bill.

Repairing medical identity theft errors can be a very long and complicated process. If someone got treatment somewhere, that information may be shared all around the country. Even if you manage to change it, it could take a very long time to correct everywhere and that puts you at great risk in case of an accident.

To prevent all of this, keep detailed records of your medical bills and insurance statements.