What is Medical Identity Theft?

Medical identity theft occurs when someone steals personal information like name, social security number, or other parts of private healthcare information such as insurance information, medical diagnosis and use it to obtain medical care, buy drugs, or submit fake billings to Medicare, Medicaid or insurance companies. Medical identity theft frequently results in erroneous entries being put into existing medical records, and can involve the creation of fictitious medical records in the victim’s name.

Medical identity theft is a crime that can cause great harm to its victims, disrupt life, damage credit rating, and waste taxpayer dollars. The damage can be life threatening. It is also the most difficult to fix after the fact, because victims have limited rights and recourses. Medical identity theft typically leaves a trail of falsified information in medical records that can plague victims’ medical and financial lives for years.

What can you do?

• Deter: Protect Your Personal Information
• Detect: Watch Out For These Common Fraud Schemes
• Defend: Check All Your Medical Bills, Medicare Summary Notices, Explanation Of Benefits, and Credit Reports

Report misuse of your personal information at: 

Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Hotline

Phone: 1-877-438-4338 (1-877-ID-THEFT)

TTY #: 1-866-653-4261 

Online: FTC.gov/idtheft 

Related articles

• September 2011: Over 10m US Personal Records Potentially Compromised (spectrum.ieee.org)
• Medical identity theft is the worst in Miami (superconductor.voltage.com)