Medical Identity Theft Proves Costly
Recent reports have shown how victims of a medical identity theft can face financial ruin. Medical identity theft occurs when an identity thief uses social security number of a victim to obtain medical care, services, products, insurance benefits or insurance. The victim is saddled with a huge bill. To prevent this, consumers are being advised to review their medical records annually including their Medical Information Bureau (MIB) consumer profile as well as medical bills and health care statements looking for treatments and procedures that they did not receive. EPIC has testified before Congress urging that safeguards against medical identity theft be implemented because the damage arising from the crime is severe, and recent efforts to digitize all medical records exposes increasing numbers of Americans to risk.
Identity theft 101: What is medical ID theft?, Joe Campana, Examiner, August 3, 2009.
