Medical identity theft

posted in by Admin on June 28th, 2010

Medical identity theft
Identity theft is a crime that has been on the rise in the recent past. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the rate of this particular crime has gone up considerably as compared to the past. Identity theft involves obtaining by wrongful means another person’s information or data and using it to commit fraud at the expense of the owner. There are various types of identity theft. Medical theft is one such type. This involves obtaining by wrongful means medical information and or records of another person with the sole intention of gaining at the expense of that person. Research carried out recently indicates that the most common form of medical identity theft involves wrongful or erroneous entry of medical information of a particular person. The danger of medical identity theft is not only the fraud involved but also the fact that it could lead to fatal results, since it could lead to wrong diagnosis thus wrong medication. A case of medical theft is more complex than it is even for financial theft and fraud, the reason being it may not be easy to recover the damage done through the medical identity theft. Medical identity theft is not easily detected and can take the victim a couple of years before realizing the mishap. It is unfortunate however, to note that even after discovering the error, victims of medical identity theft do not have clear means through which they can recover the money lost through medical identity. In addition, there are no legal provisions to allow such victims to be allowed to correct any error or wrongful information that may be in their medical records. Medical identity theft as mentioned earlier can lead to adverse effects including death due to alteration of the medical records. Some of the information that is of interest to impostors of medical identity theft includes information regarding health insurance. Medical identity theft is classified into two major categories namely financial and medical. Medical theft is where the medical information of the fraudster is mixed up with that of a genuine patient, and thus the medical records contain numerous errors. Financial theft on the other hand involves medical bills that one is unaware of. Most health institutions are always able to deal with the financial aspect of medical identity theft as opposed to the medical effects. There are various reasons as to which people commit medical identity theft. While for most it is a case of desiring to have their medication controlled, for others it is the desire to have an unwarranted medical cover for which they would not qualify for in normal circumstances. Medical identity theft is thus the most serious type of identity theft. ?

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