Medical ID Theft Is Nothing To Sneeze At

Below is a reputation from the Smart Card Alliance without ceasing Medical Identity Theft. While the info is staggering the walk at a distance points for me is the migration to PHRs, EHRs and HIEs. Security has to quick spring at the very beginning and that is at which place a secure token and password superintendent combination work well together.

Medical Identity Theft in Healthcare

Publication Date: March 2010

While identity fraud is a global issue that garners abundant media attention, most do not effectuate that medical identity theft is a weighty and growing threat. Many authorities weigh medical identity theft one of the fastest expanding crimes in America. With the digital mature years of healthcare upon us, the risks are expected to grow as electronic medical records become further prevalent and the exchange of this given conditions over expanding networks becomes more pervasive. Heightened importance over personal data security and retreat highlight the importance of having insured electronic medical identities.

1.5 Million Victims of Medical Identity Theft

According to a novel Ponemon Institute study, nearly 1.5 very great number Americans have been victims of of the healing art identity theft with an estimated lump cost of $28.6 billion – or near $20,000 per victim. [1] Further ground of belief of the significance of the therapeutical fraud problem is the allocation of $1.7 billion conducive to fraud detection in the 2011 U.S. Health and Human Services Department parcel. [2] In 2009, 68 reported healthcare facts breaches in the U.S. bring over 11.3 million patient records at dare to undertake of exposure. [3] Two notable instances are the Health Net falling out and the Virginia Department of Health Professions schism.

Health Net (a Connecticut-based hale condition insurance plan) reported the loss of a ~-hearted drive containing seven years of exterior and medical information on about 1.5 the multitude Health Net customers. They reported the missed drive six months after it disappeared. [4]

Virginia Department of Health Professions was the dupe of a $10 million extortion lay a plan to expose over 8 million lenient records and 35 million prescriptions. [5]

Patients whose medical identities are stolen face serious delaying effects. Fraudulent healthcare events can withdrawal erroneous data in medical records. This incorrect information – like information about tests, diagnoses and procedures – be able to greatly affect future healthcare and insurance coverage and costs. Patients are many times unaware of medical identity theft until a curious bill or a wonderful line of questioning by a teacher exposes the issue. Then, the overlay of proof is often with the long-suffering and it can be difficult to have the patient's legitimate medical records cleaned up. The consequences can also be life threatening and be possible to lead to serious medical errors and fatalities.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the associated viands under the Health Information Technology against Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act be under the necessity highlighted the need to address solitude and security across our healthcare combination of parts to form a whole. In fact, HITECH requires that consumers have existence notified of healthcare data breaches. Alerting patients while their personal health information has been breached is a essential response, but it is a reactive just degree. It does nothing to prevent the crack or address the subsequent issues patients external part when they are victims of medical identity theft. The healthcare industry in like manner needs policy that takes a proactive bring near–one that implements controls and technology that assure patient information is always protected. It needs to make secure electronic medical identities a priority.

As the ARRA provides incentives with respect to more and more doctors to adopt electronic soundness records (EHRs), and as health knowledge exchanges (HIEs) becomes more commonplace, consumers are uniform more at risk of medical identity pilfering from an intentional or unintentional alienation of healthcare records, or the "destruction" or theft of a laptop. Right at present, healthcare records are likely to have existence on paper, and secured by the physical safeguards and administrative procedures in the doctor's office. When these records are digitized and accessible by way of interconnected EHRs and HIEs, the potential for exposure grows exponentially.