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Tip of the Week

Tip of the Week: June 13th, 2010
07/27/2010
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Protect Your MedicalInformation
By John Sileo
www.Sileo.com


Medical records are one-stop shopping for identity thieves. There is noneed to slowly gather bits and pieces of someone's personal information- it's all packaged together: Social Security number, name, address,phone number, even payment accounts.

Crooks have received everything from medication to a liver transplantusing a stolen identity. And that's only the tip of the iceberg! Morethan just medical treatment is at stake. Once a thief's medicalinformation is entered into your records, it's extremely difficult toget rid of that information. It's conceivable, for example, that at alater date, you'll need a Type A blood transfusion but be given thethief's Type B with dire consequences.

Identity theft of medical records has more than doubled since 2008, asstated in Javelin's 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report. It's notdifficult to imagine the misery that a million Americans have sufferedduring the past two years when their identities were stolen. And the Poneman Institute, in their NationalStudy on Medical Identity Theft, states that another half millionpeople loaned their insurance cards to uninsured family members andfriends. The unsavvy lenders have incurred huge medical bills in this'friendly fraud.

Larry Ponemon says that, on average, it costs $20,000 to resolve amedical identity theft case. Unlike credit card companies, where thebanks incur the losses, the victims often have to pay for thefraudulent care and sometimes lose their health insurance or have topay higher premiums to restore their accounts. Even though there areHIPAA laws to protect your privacy, not all health care organizationshave strict safeguards in place.

The risk goes even further: if someone is treated using your identity,your medical records will more than likely be altered and couldcompromise your treatment and ability to get service. Accordingto Larry Ponemon, "stolen medical records offer a complete dossier toget a passport in a victim's name that could be used for terrorism."

Ways to Protect Yourself:
  • When you receive anExplanation of Benefits from insurers, read it carefully and save -don't throw it away even when it says "this is not a bill"! If atreatment date or doctor's name is not familiar to you, call theinsurer and the billing physician to resolve.
  • If your wallet is stolen,contact your insurance company just as you would your credit cardcompany. Don't carry your Medicare card in your wallet. Carry aphotocopy and black out the last four digits of the SS#.
  • Urge your health careproviders to ask patients for photo ID's.
  • Ask your doctors for copiesof everything in your medical files, even if you have to pay for them.
  • Monitor your credit report.If you see medical billing errors, contact your insurer and the threecredit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.
  • Avoid Internet andstorefront offers of free treatment and supplies.
  • Ask for a list of benefitspaid in your name and an "accounting of disclosures" which shows whogot your records.
About the author: To furtherbulletproof yourself and your business, visit John's blog at www.Sileo.com. To book John at your next event,visit www.ThinkLikeaSpy.com.John Sileo became America's leading Identity Theft Speaker amp;Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 toidentity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department ofDefense, Pfizer and the FDIC.Permissiongranted for use onDrLaura.com.

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