(Newswire.net — February 24, 2015) — While no one is looking, a new study indicates that millions of Americans have been victims of medical identity theft. Researchers said that medical identity fraud is in fact much more costly than standard identity theft. But it is not all about money. A child was taken from her mother until she proved that she was not a drug addict who had abandoned her child. Actually, she was the victim of a ‘medical identity theft’. Her identity was sold to a junky so she could give a birth in the hospital. Eventually, the child was returned to her victimized mother with an apology.
The Ponemon Institute, a Michigan-based research center, registered near half a million medical identity fraud incidents in US in 2014. According to Forbes, the study commissioned by the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance, was sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, ID Experts Corporation, Experian Data Breach Resolution and Identity Finder, LLC.
Researches said that healthcare record theft often results in costly billing disputes, but it can also lead to delays in treatment, misdiagnose and issuing wrong perscription medicatin which could seriously compromise the health of the insured.
The records show that identiy thieves hava a preference for Social Security numbers because they can claim the identity of the user much easier than through other digital accounts that have stronger security.
In addition, healthcare providers and insurers rarely informed victims about such theft, Forbs reported. Only 10 percent of the respondents managed to successfully resolve the problem, at a great expense of money and time. According to Forbes, the study suggests that 65 percent of medical identity theft victims had to pay an average of $13,500 to resolve the crime.
Here are the some findings singled out by Forbs, from the 38 page report:
Only 37% of respondents say their healthcare providers have informed them about the measures they take to protect medical records, while 68% of these respondents are not confident that these measures will keep their medical records secure. 50% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they would change healthcare providers if they were not confident in their healthcare providers’ security practices.
Other data shows that almost 70% of people surveyed had no confidence in their providers ability to keep their medical records secure. The survey that MIFA sponsored in 2013 resulted in even more sobering statistics around actual clinical risk of those that had experienced medical identity theft:
15% of respondents experienced a misdiagnosis
13% of respondents experienced a mistreatment
14% of respondents experienced a delay in treatment
11% of respondents were prescribed the wrong pharmaceutical
50% of respondents have done nothing to resolve the incident
The biggest challenge, however, with medical identity theft is the long‒term nature of the risk that affect children. According to online safety expert for Intel Security Robert Siciliano, it’s the kids that can be the most affected by medical identity theft. He say the kids “often don’t find out about it until they get out on their own and begin to apply for health insurance or as they get older, life insurance. The premiums they encounter as result of an earlier medical identity fraud can be among the highest available and often take years to straighten out.