Our Mission, Goals and Vision

MIFA’s mission is to strengthen the healthcare ecosystem by working to reduce the frequency and impact of medical identity fraud.

MIFA provides leadership, education and awareness to drive the development of best-in-class technologies and influences changes to regulation, policies and law regarding Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI).

We are a not-for-profit public-private organization working throughout the healthcare industry to reduce medical identity fraud through collaboration and partnership. Our members and partners include healthcare providers, health plans, their business associates, other trade associations, academia and public organizations.

Our Goals

MIFA’s overarching goal is to mobilize the healthcare ecosystem in order to:

  • Better protect the privacy and security of Protected Health Information (PHI).
  • Create a body of research documenting the financial, physical and emotional effects of medical identity theft.
  • Promote best-in-class technologies, policies and practices.
  • Increase education to improve issue and solution awareness among all stakeholders.
  • Advocate for regulations, policies and laws that help curtail this problem.

Our Vision and How We Do It

Our vision is of the public-at-large and industry as a whole playing significant roles in better protecting themselves against medical identity theft and its devastating effects by:

  • Cultivating knowledge and problem solving by fostering collaboration among MIFA members, strategic partners, legislators and regulators.
  • Performing research to quantify the cost of medical identity theft and to uncover the associated trends and patterns.
  • Raising awareness and providing education on medical identity theft and the associated ramifications.
  • Working with policy decision makers to develop policies and procedures that work most effectively to reduce medical identity fraud.
  • Empowering the public-at-large to be the first line of defense in protecting information and preventing fraud.

MIFA Members share these common beliefs:

  • Strong personal and professional ethics.
  • A desire to assist others and make a lasting difference in the world.
  • A passion for protecting individuals and preventing criminals from committing healthcare fraud.

To accomplish our mission, MIFA holds a coordinated and comprehensive approach that unites stakeholders from all sectors within the healthcare ecosystem in order to share information necessary to bring about the fundamental shifts required to:

  • Quantify the problem and understand the trends and patterns with medical identity fraud.
  • Educate the industry and consumers on protecting data.
  • Empower consumers to take a role in protecting their PHI/PII.

Our Guiding Principles

All healthcare ecosystem stakeholders currently have a tremendous opportunity to pro-actively and responsibly tackle the emerging threat of medical identity theft and fraud.

  • There is no single solution for fraud prevention. Solutions require a holistic strategy that involves industry, service providers, consumers, government, law enforcement and other pertinent players in the fight against fraud, such as associations/consumer organizations; government agencies; academia and private research; and technology service providers.
  • Fraud is not a competitive issue. A clear understanding of the problem requires comprehensive research, collaboration and the sharing of information between organizations – regionally, nationally and internationally. Working together cooperatively while building relationships with regulatory agents, organizations can develop effective means to suppress burdensome regulations and foster voluntary compliance and self-regulation.
  • Industry and government must work together to develop holistic strategies pertinent to the fight against fraud. Practicable efforts will include jointly developed solutions and best practices specific to medical identity fraud and allow stakeholders to take on the responsibility of educating both the healthcare industry and consumers.
  • Consumers must take an active role in the security and privacy of their financial and health related information. Individual consumers can become vocal advocates for system-wide reform. Currently, very few patients can act as advocates on their own behalf and most are uniformed about the implications of such theft.

The Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) organization.