Birth Certificate Fraud - A must read.

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State Practices Create Opportunities for Fraud

Delayed, Amended, and Midwife Birth Registrations Provide Opportunities for Fraud. State and local vital records staff say birth certificates issued based on delayed and amended birth registrations are more likely to be fraudulent. They also say they consider births registered by midwives, and other home births, to have a high potential for fraud.
Delayed birth registration occurs when a certificate of birth is not filed within the time specified by State law. Delayed birth registrations are sometimes the result of unattended home births, midwife births, and other out-of-hospital births. The Model State and Vital Statistics Act and Regulations require delayed certificates to be issued for births not filed within 1 year. Based on our survey responses, the State median time frame for filing delayed registrations is 1 year, but varies from State-to-State and ranges between 10 days and 4 years.

Federal and State staff alerted us to problems with delayed birth registration. These problems arise from the lack of evidence required to file a delayed birth in some States. Not all States include information with birth certificates about the documentary evidence they accept as proof a birth occurred, and upon which delayed registrations are allowed, with delayed birth certificates. Likewise, the documentary evidence required to register delayed births is inconsistent among States. Forty-seven States accept affidavits of
Birth Certificate Fraud 14 OEI- 07-99-00570 personal knowledge as proof a birth occurred, and 14 include no abstract of documentary evidence when issuing delayed birth certificates.

Amended birth registration occurs when changes are made to the vital information contained on the original birth registration. While we did not specifically address amended birth registrations in our survey, they were identified as problematic in our discussions with Federal agency and State vital records office staff. The overall concern surrounding amended registrations is similar to that of delayed registrations in that some States do not require substantial evidence to amend birth registrations and that birth certificates issued based on amended registrations are not clearly marked as having been “amended.” One State registrar also noted a growing problem in which adults are adopted by other adults, usually for inheritance purposes. In these cases, the adopted person undergoes a legal change of name and their birth record is altered, but the fact that the adoption took place is never recorded in any way on the original or amended birth certificate.
Midwife birth registrations were also identified as an area of concern. Midwives provide a valuable service in insuring the healthy delivery of children and accurate registration of births. However, out-of-hospital births attended by midwives have raised concerns. Sixteen State registrars indicate they have encountered problems specifically linked to midwife birth registration. Our discussions with Federal, State, and local staff during our onsite visits indicate that problems associated with midwife registrations are concentrated along the United States-Mexico border. In fact, midwife registration has become such a problem in one border city we visited that they now require a police officer to be called to the scene shortly after any midwife delivery to verify that the birth actually occurred in the United States. All 41 States that allow midwives to register births have procedures and guidelines in place for such registration, but only 17 of those States require information in addition to or different from that required for hospital births. The additional information required to register midwife births in these States can include attendant affidavits, prenatal and/or post-partum records, and notarized statements or other documentation verifying the birth took place. In addition, some States require that midwives provide documentation that the mother lived in the State at the time the birth occurred.

http://www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-99-00570.pdf