Fraud with Your Medical Identity is Most Devastating

Cases of fraud with medical identity are not discussed or publicized much, but such fraud is most devastating one. Your financial as well as your physical health is at stake at the same time.

Identity thieves steal your medical identity for many reasons -

1. Expensive surgeries at the hospital - Someone impersonating you may get admitted to a hospital for an expensive surgery. The hospital will create a medical file for such patient. The file will contain the medical history of the thief. Then the hospital may go ahead with the surgery and the follow-up treatments. The patient will skip the bill finally and run away.

As the address given by the patient is false, the bills sent to such address will come back. Finally such account ends up in collections and creates a negative credit history in the credit report of the original identity holder. At that time the original identity holder comes to know about the fraud but it is too late then.

To correct the false medical record is not an easy process. The hospitals will generally refuse to make such corrections at your request. The collection agencies for the hospital bills will not be prepared to listen to the arguments of original identity holder.

2. Getting expensive prescriptions - Identity thieves may try to get some expensive prescriptions which they otherwise could not afford. Again, this prescription information is linked to your medical history on such purchases.

To buy such prescriptions, thieves may use a stolen credit card. If the card is stolen from you, you will at least come to know about the theft sooner. However, if someone else's card is used, there is no possibility of detecting identity theft in the short run.

On realizing about such identity theft, you should immediately contact your medical service provider. Request your provider to delete the false records. You should also file a police complaint which will be useful for correcting your medical records. You should also check your incoming mail very carefully to find out whether there are any medical bills outstanding due to this fraud.

3. Making false claims - Such fraud is possible if an employee within the healthcare industry is participating in identity theft. The employees can steal the information of patients and either sell to someone or they may make false claims.

You should never enter your social security number while paying your medical bills. You should also avoid writing your medical record number on any check. Instead of that, you can write the last four digits of your number. This will provide an additional protection to your identity.

If your medical identity is stolen, you can get help from the department of Human and Health Services. There is another website which can help you in protecting your privacy - www.healthprivacy.com
This website can provide you useful information to protect your medical identity.

Theft of your medical identity is far more serious than other thefts. Your finances as well as your health may be seriously affected ruining your entire life.