Last year, nearly two million Americans have become a medical identity theft victim, 32 percent more than the previous year. Today, medical identity theft accounts for 43 percent of all identity theft in the United States, and cases are increasing faster than any other type of identity theft.
medical identity theft occurs when someone uses the name of another person and other personal attributes to fraudulently receiving products or medical services, including prescription drugs and refunds insurance. As crime becomes increasingly common, it is important to consider some of its terrifying ramifications.
This can seriously damage the medical records
Half of Americans do not realize that medical identity theft can cause permanent damage to their medical records. This damage could see the victims of medical identity theft receiving incorrect treatment or even life-threatening in the future.
Imagine you are in the emergency room, unconscious and rapidly losing blood. If you were awake, you tell the doctors that your blood type is B +, but once you get knocked down, they can see your medical records - those who say that you are A- after an identity thief had a blood test.
If you receive incompatible blood, antibodies in the blood will attack and destroy the red cell donors, which could cause fever, bleeding, shortness of breath, and kidney damage. Likewise, if the person who stole your medical identity had no allergies, doctors may prescribe a sulfonamide you really are fatally allergic.
This is not only theoretical problems. Studies show that nearly 15 percent of victims of medical flight to the United States were misdiagnosed and 13 percent received ill treatment due to incorrect medical records. More of a 10-victims were prescribed the wrong drugs because of this problem.
Despite these concerns, about half of all US medical theft victims do nothing to resolve their cases. This complacency leaves them open to serious medical problems in the future.
It costs individuals thousands
The cost of rectifying the medical records may discourage many victims to take action. If someone steals your credit card and start using it, most credit card companies will waive the charges and restore your financial records.
However, victims of medical identity theft do not receive such protection. Consequently, the costs associated with medical identity theft tend to be six times greater than for financial identity theft.
In 2013, 12.3 billion victims theft costs American Medical identity around $ hors-pocket expenses. Each victim has spent an average of $ 22,346 paying bills they do not suffer, paying larger fees for medical treatment after they passed wrongly insurance coverage, and pay for legal advice, protection identity, and credit reports to correct the damage.
Can you afford over $ 20k straighten this mess? Even if you could, do not expect that the flashing silver will remove the problem. On average, it takes more than a year to recover the victims of damage caused by medical identity theft.
cover its impact on victims Insurance
Your health care provider looks at your medical records to determine your coverage, it is logical that the changes made by the medical identity theft can seriously affect your insurance.
For example, all the treatments you really need might not be covered because your records insist that you have exceeded your maximum annual benefits. You may even be denied insurance coverage entirely because your medical records claim that you have a serious medical condition such as AIDS disease or Parkinson's, you do not.
This problem could not only affect your health insurance, either. Imagine you decide it's time to apply for life insurance to protect your spouse and children once you are gone. This could also be dismissed because your medical records incorrectly show that you are a higher risk because of chronic illness. You might even be rejected for a job if a prospective employer survey on your erroneous medical records.
These problems occur with real Americans with frightening regularity. Nearly two in five American victims of medical identity theft have lost their insurance coverage due to security breaches.
This is the Abusing Healthcare Providers
faithAs medical identity theft rate grows, Americans lose their health care providers. Fifty-six percent of US victims of medical identity theft say they have lost confidence in their health care provider after the crime took place.
So many Americans believe that health care providers are responsible for the protection of medical records that 57 percent of local consumers would abandon their current provider if they could not protect their files. Obviously, any breach of trust resulting from medical identity theft would seriously impact the bottom line of a healthcare provider.
This is disturbing for health care providers who are supposed to help Americans who help themselves. Half of Americans do not take steps to protect against medical identity theft. These steps might include checking their health records and explanation of benefits.
Fifty-two percent of Americans who find the unknown health claims on file do report them. Although "family fraud" is on the rise, 30 percent of Americans allow family members to use their personal identification to obtain medical services.
Correction of medical records can also be costly for healthcare providers. Studies suggest that the fight against medical data breach can cost suppliers around $ 211 for each affected individual file. In addition, companies that do not meet the regulatory requirements established by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act can face $ 1.5 million in fines and damages.
There could ruin doctors Careers
medical identity theft has the power to damage not only health care providers without a face, but the careers of honest doctors, too. If a thief steals their medical records, they can deal with important bills and legal action. Patients may also lose confidence in their doctor and take their business elsewhere.
The offices of many doctors and medical offices lack the necessary security measures to keep secure their files, even if they are legally responsible for safeguarding patient information. Many medical practices allow staff to access patient records via their own devices.
Most do not even need these devices to have antivirus and virtual private networks installed. Without these security measures in place, doctors and other medical personnel may become unwitting accomplices to medical identity theft.
These terrifying ramifications of medical identity theft should remind all Americans of the importance of protecting their privacy.
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