You Can Build A New Identity

Friday, April 10, 2009

Medical Data Theft
Sensitive material stored in records, experts warn
By Donalee Moulton

When is a patient not a patient? When the identity being used is stolen.

Medical identity theft is a growing issue in North America and growing even larger in a recession where pinching pennies can mean pinching someone else’s identity to get access to health care services, prescription drugs, elective surgery and dental care.

"Stolen patient identities not only create a financial problem for the victim; the corruption of the individual’s medical history could prove lethal in a medical emergency," says Darin Johnson vice-president of marketing for HealthCare Insight, based in South Jordan, Utah.


Consider someone who is allergic to penicillin. Unknown to them, their medical identity is stolen and the thief fills a prescription for the antibiotic. The real individual is rushed to hospital with serious infection. The physicians check his record. They believe they can safely inject penicillin because according to the records this person was recently prescribed the drug.
More common, perhaps, and certainly very costly to the system are those individuals who steal someone’s medical identity as a means of stealing someone’s full identity.
Obtaining someone’s health card is significant inroad into their life. "You can build a whole new identity," notes Philip Bowden, national accounts manager with Securit Corp. in Oakville, Ont. "In the health file is a wealth of information often including credit information.

"All of a sudden," he says, "I have a profile of that person. I have the framework for becoming you."

Medical identity theft offers one significant advantage over the traditional means of stealing someone’s identity: It’s harder to detect. Individuals don’t have the ability to monitor what is being prescribed to another person or have easy access to a list of health services that have been provided in their name, Mr. Bowden says.

From 1992 to 2006, there were more than 19,400 complaints regarding medical identity theft made to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The prevalence may not be as great in Canada, thanks to our universal health care system, but that doesn’t make us immune, says Craig Hannaford, executive consultant with Fraud Squad TV.

Prevention, of course, is the best medicine. Mr. Hannaford recommends individuals start with caution. "People should guard their personal information very carefully."

And that caution starts with common sense. "Protect your [health] insurance card as you would a credit card. Report it missing immediately if your purse or wallet is stolen," Mr. Johnson says.

As well, he adds, "cross-shred personal documents when disposing of them."

Mr. Bowden recommends that individuals ask their health care providers and local hospitals questions such as, "Can you let me know the last time I was here?" or "Can you tell me how many prescriptions have been filled in my name?"

For those who receive summaries from a health insurance provider, read that summary carefully.

Individuals also have access to their medical records, but the process and cost varies from province to province. It may be money and time well spent, however.

"People have to take responsibility for what is on their medical history," says Mr. Hannaford, former RCMP officer and certified general accountant.

The burden for prevention doesn’t rest solely with individuals, he adds. "The biggest defence has to come from issuers of cards – chips, pin numbers, identity controls similar to credit cards. … Governments are moving in that direction."

Health care providers also have a role to play, Mr. Bowden says. "They need to do a proper check when new patients come in. There is room for error."

Some hospitals in the U.S. are now requesting to see a driver’s license as well as a health card when patients are admitted.

Health care providers also need to ensure security measures are in place to protect the medical information they have on file as medical identity theft is know as an insider crime. It is estimated that 10 per cent of all cases are committed by individuals who work for a provider, Mr. Bowden says.

"This is a trend we have to watch … This is a huge business," he says.

It is difficult to gauge the significance or the impact of medical identity theft. According to a report from the World Privacy Forum, this is "the least studied and most poorly documented of the cluster of identity theft crimes."

"The fact of the matter is that identity thieves will use [information] wherever they can make a buck," Mr. Hannaford says.