Medical Identity Theft

[WhiskeyGirl]

Not only are identities used to get jobs and credit, but also to obtain health care on the victim’s back.  While a stolen identity for work and/or credit can make you life difficult, medical identity theft could threaten your life: (snip)

The article notes that the primary culprits in such theft include transients, illegal immigrants (”undocumented workers”), and addicts attempting to get a prescription.

This, yet again, highlights the fact of why identity verification (like E-Verify) is so important.  With compromised medical records, a legitimate patient could be administered drugs they are allergic to, less effective medication or procedures, or receive the wrong blood type.  Additionally, this drives up medical costs for all and could drive up costs to a patient if they are mistakenly believed to have a serious condition (ICU/quarantine costs etc) due to the compromised record.  They may also be denied procedures due to a non-existent medical condition and may have their insurance revoked:

“If you get sick as a crook and go to the doctor under your name and come back with what they would deem as a preexisting condition, we’ve had actual insurance companies try to cancel the victim’s insurance for debilitating diseases,” said Lt. Sebby.

http://utahrattler.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/medical-identity-theft-illegal-immigration-addicts/

[nonesuche]

Thanks WG, good to see you back and this is an important alert. As we all hope for more privacy now it seems what little we have left, is open season increasingly.

[Slogger]

Now, we have computerized theft and ransom.  Hackers took the records of millions from a government website.  They want $10M, or they will release the records for all to see.

Unbelievable! 

I don't believe I want the government to have care of medical records.

(Add another "DAH" moment to the tally)