Medical identity theft occurs when a criminal uses someone else’s personal information to receive medical treatment and supplies. A recent study by the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA) indicates that medical identity theft has nearly doubled since 2010, with more than 2.3 million adult victims in the U.S in 2014. Victims can experience serious risks related to their healthcare such as misdiagnosis, mistreatment and delayed care due to erroneous information introduced to medical records during the thief’s treatment.
Topics discussed include:
- What is medical identity theft?
- What are the effects of medical identity theft?
- How can a consumer tell that they may be a victim?
- What steps can a victim take to correct their medical records?
- How can consumers avoid medical identity theft?
Expert: Ann Patterson is Senior Vice President and Program Director for the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA). <MedIDFraud.org> The MIFA is a not-for-profit organization working to reduce medical identity fraud through collaboration among healthcare providers, health plans, and others, and Ann is a frequent speaker at industry conferences about medical identity theft and fraud prevention.
