Identity theft can cause financial trouble and administrative headaches for its victims, but medical identity theft can literally put your life at risk.

Here’s what you need to know about this dangerous and growing information crime.

The Basics of Medical Identity Theft

Someone uses your information (SSN, health insurance number, etc.) to get medical treatments or services, or someone makes medical claims using your identification information.

Research from the World Privacy Forum shows that 3% of all identity theft victims in the U.S. (nearly a quarter of a million people) were victims of medical identity theft in 2005.
Despite its dangers, medical ID theft is perhaps the least-studied and worst-documented type of identity theft.

The Health Risks

Imagine this: someone uses your information to visit a doctor and maybe has a couple procedures performed. After the crime has been committed, here’s what might happen to you:

• You’ll get billed for the medical care you never received. This could harm your credit and drain your finances.
• Your medical record could include information that doesn’t apply to you, including illness history. This could hurt your chances at qualifying for medical or life insurance down the line.
• Your blood type may be incorrect. Should you need a transfusion or blood work, you could be out of luck if your chart has the wrong type recorded.
• Your medical allergies could be wrong. Whoever stole your medical information may have different allergies from you – which could lead to serious problems if you’re ever unable to speak for yourself and in need of medical care.

The risk of medical ID theft grows as the medical services industry moves toward digitized records.

Prevention

Your identity is valuable. Take these simple steps to protect it:

• Take a close look at the “explanation of benefits” section of each medical bill you receive from your insurer. Any inconsistencies with your own records should be a red flag.
• If you have more than one doctor, ask each for a list of benefits provided.
• Guard your health insurance card as you would a credit card – don’t leave it lying around.
• When checking in at the doctor’s, be sure no one can overhear you give out your personal information.
• Contact any care provider from whom you receive an incorrect bill. Assertively pursue corrections.
• Report all mistakes or miscommunications to your insurance provider.
• File a police report if you find the incident was more than an administrative error.
• Take steps to correct any wrong information in your file.

Medical bills play a role in more than 60 percent of all bankruptcy cases. So it pays to make sure that you fully understand your medical bills and aren’t charged too much or incorrectly.

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