What Are The Guidelines For Medical Identity Theft?

Medical identity theft is a type of fraud activity which is a growing crime in the world and specially United States

. The internet technology has contributed largely to the fallout but the privacy laws make these problems quit hard to resolve. After the thieves are equipped with the information of an unknown patients they would have the power to cause considerable damages.

However after they have claimed the identity the thieves would also be able to receive medical benefits in the name of the victim like medical visits,, discount prescription drugs and treatment. Additionally the thief might also file fraudulent claims that might leave the victim with a number of unpaid bills, a wrecked credit score, annoying calls from different collection agencies and worst they would have inaccurate medical records.

Impact of medical identity theft

The medical identity theft victims would not even know about this crime until they find a huge bill on their name. However after they realize what the problem is the law that is put in place to help the consumer actually makes it difficult to prove medical identity theft.

According to the federal privacy laws like the accountability act and health insurance portability, the health care providers should receive penalty on releasing person information of an individual without following the strict protocol. In case of medical identity theft it is generally the victim who is denied access to their own personal information.

As there are the major credit bureaus for your credit reports, there is no main repository selected for maintaining medical records. There are also no services with excellent database which can collect and monitor information about medical history and health insurance plan of an individual.

Therefore it leaves the patient with time consuming job of contacting all the providers the have visited to avail their information. Additionally there is also not specific program designed for medical identity theft victims to fix potentially hazardous mistakes and dispute false claims within the records. This is much more than a financial nightmare as it can also have serious health risks. In case the healthcare service provider has maintained fraudulent records in your name then you next visit might often result in inaccurate drug prescription or diagnosis.

Medical identity theft protection

Although recovering from medical identity theft is a huge challenge, your best defence would be prevention. Therefore you can just follow some simple ways to stay away from medical id theft

Prepare As you are now aware of medical id theft consequences and the risks involved it would be wise to start gathering your records before someone else attempts. Make sure you contact every medical service provider you have visited and request for a copy of your medical records.

Communicate It is important that you always stay on top regarding your medical insurance claims. You can contact a representative to request documentation for every claim you have filed and was paid on your behalf.

Read carefully Finally it is very important that you carefully read every invoice offered by the service provider. It might hold true details of your insurance benefits and so make sure you are familiar with all the benefits in their services. In case you dont understand make sure it is cleared our before you sign.

by: John Goldman

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