Medical Identity Theft: Most dangerous of all

Your medical identity is your most complete and most valuable identity. Your medical identity has far more uses than any other identity and that makes your medical identity worth more money to a thief, than a credit card. A single medical identity is like a credit card with a $Million credit limit. Medical identity has become the thieves ID of choice! Medical identity theft can cost you literally everything.

When you create your “medical” identity, your doctor or hospital will ask for specific information from you. That information will usually include your name, address, date of birth, social security number, physical descriptors, medical insurance policy number, drivers license number, phone number and may also include your email. It may also include your credit card or banking information. That is enough information to take over a persons entire life. Here are some real life examples:

Livelihood: A commercial truck driver loses his license to drive because a thief has used his medical identity. The thief has diabetes. The victim does not. During a routine check the victim’s employer discovered that he “had diabetes”. He was terminated based on false information entered into his medical records by a thief resulting in loss of his income.

Personal Freedom: A mother was recently threatened with arrest and child protective services threatened to take her four healthy children away from her because a drug addict mother claiming to be her gave birth to a drug baby. In this case the mother was being threatened with arrest and her children were all being threatened with loss of their personal freedom. Note: This is a legal emergency!

Finances: A man received a bill for a $100,000 surgery he never had. The thief gave the victims name and address and now the victim is receiving bills for services and medications he never received. When this unpaid bill went to the victim’s credit report his score was damaged and now he was no longer eligible for a home loan. This also prompted banks to increase interest rates on his credit cards.

Physical Life: Three weeks before a scheduled brain surgery, “Susie” (not her real name) was notified by her identity theft service that her medical identity was being used by 5 different people in 5 different states. This apparently happened as a result of a healthcare data breach. During a routine office visit, one doctor had actually prescribed a medication that she was highly allergic to. Her medical records indicated she was currently taking that medication when it was actually being taken by a thief. Later a medical expert told her that if she had taken this medication it would have almost certainly taken her life. In another state, a thief was using her medical policy to get a sex change. This thief caused all kinds of other problems with her identity. Was she now male or female?

Susie banked blood in case she needed it during her surgery. Once her medical file was flagged for identity theft, she could no longer get her own blood back because the medical providers had concerns that her tainted medical data might lead them to give her blood that was not actually hers. According to HIPPA laws, once her identity was used she no longer had access to her own records because they were blended with the records of the thieves who have the same legal rights and protections we have. Susie was told that she will probably have her identity used many times throughout her life because thieves usually pass it around to other thieves. With the guidance of licensed identity theft experts, Susie has to implement special safeguards such as being photographed and fingerprinted, and having blood drawn before most procedures. Her medical providers have the responsibility of protecting her health, and themselves against liability.

Medical identity theft requires specialized professional handling. Since Susie had the finest team of identity theft experts on her case BEFORE she had her surgery, she is alive today. Identity theft threatens every man, woman and infant child. Get the experts on your side today, BEFORE you have a problem.

Matthew Rice is a local identity theft expert. He is has been working with identity theft since 2005. He is available to speak to your church, service club, organization, or business. For further information, contact him at (661) 822-1127 or by email at [email protected] with questions or comments.