Thieves steal health insurance numbers to gain access to prescribed drugs, to see medical practitioners or to file claims with your health insurance provider.

According to the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance, over two million Americans were victims of medical identity theft in 2014, a 22 percent increase since 2013. Many thieves will steal health insurance numbers to gain access to prescribed drugs, to see medical practitioners or to file claims with your health insurance provider. Medical identity theft is dangerous to consumers of health insurance. Victims of medical identity theft have ended up paying at least $13,000 to resolve the issues according to MIFA.

One of the most frustrating things about being a victim of medical identity theft is the process of resolving the issue. A survey done by MIFA found that only 10 percent of the participants were completely satisfied with the conclusion of resolving their incident.

Learn tips such as:

• Read your medical and insurance statements.
• Have copies of your medical records.
• Request the accounting of disclosures for your records.
• Not sharing your medical and health insurance information with anyone that asks for it over phone or email, unless you are the one initiating contact.

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February 3, 2016 By Gina Noe, The Richmond Register