Annual Award Honors Leaders Who Have Made Significant Contributions to Privacy and Security; Conference Addresses Cyber Threats and New Approaches to Safeguard Health Information. PHILADELPHIA — March 3, 2016 — Rising cyber risks and new threats to healthcare data require new approaches to safeguard protected health information (PHI). At the forefront of new privacy and security approaches is Meredith Phillips, CHC, CHPC, HCISPP, ITIL, chief information privacy & security officer at Henry Ford Health System, who will be presented with the PHI Hero Award at the 2016 PHI Protection Network Conference, taking place March 17-18, 2016 in Philadelphia. Attendees will […]
While individuals can’t do much to control someone hacking into their insurance company’s network, experts say there are ways to protect yourself from this costly and potentially life-threatening type of identity fraud. Healthcare-related data breaches and medical identity theft and fraud are on the rise. Thieves that intend to use your medical, insurance or financial information for themselves often don’t get all the information they need in one place. They are good at aggregating details to create a complete medical identity profile they can exploit, according to the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance. The group and other security experts gave tips […]
The victim lost much more than his financial information — his entire medical history was hijacked as well. The victim, Ronnie Bogle, lost much more than his financial information — his entire medical history was hijacked as well. Bogle lives in San Jose and had never visited Washington, but his criminal history, medical history and credit history said otherwise. Police say his brother Gary Bogle had been living as a transient in Washington and used Ronnie’s personal information to obtain treatment during expensive ER visits. He also used Ronnie’s name during multiple arrests for crimes related to drunken behavior. The […]
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 […]
A family in Cumming spent five months trying to figure out who got an MRI and stuck them with a $3,700.00 bill. The 11Alive Investigators discovered it’s up to you to clear those bad medical bills, and that could take months of frustrating work. “I was just shocked,” Cathy James told 11Alive Chief Investigator Brendan Keefe New Zealand pharmacy edtabs.co.nz. “What we thought was going to take a week at most to fix, took five months.” Cathy James showed Keefe the hospital bill for her husband’s MRI of the spine. But her husband wasn’t at Northside Hospital on that date. He was 40 miles […]
Your prescription drugs in the wrong hands can be deadly. Every year you hear stories about people who die from taking medicine prescribed to someone else. But there’s also another danger if someone gets a hold of your pill bottles – someone could steal your medical identity. Medical ID theft is the fastest growing type of ID theft. And the NC Attorney General’s top ID theft expert was disappointed in all the prescriptions we found in salvage cars. But she also pointed out that just throwing these in the trash is just as dangerous. Think about it – a prescription […]
Updated Rhode Island legislation hopes to cut down on medical identity theft and other issues from data breaches. Medical identity theft is just one potential issue that recent Rhode Island legislation hopes to solve. Set to go into effect on June 26, 2016, the new Rhode Island Identity Theft Protection Act requires businesses and organizations of all sizes to implement and maintain a risk-based information security program, along with other key provisions. This legislation replaces the current law, and has some similarities, such as data breach notification must be given in the “most expedient time possible.” However, the new Act […]
Palm Coast woman faced more than $250K in bills for someone else’s surgeries. Imagine being rushed to a hospital with a serious injury, only to learn someone else already had a major surgery on your dime, and the thief used your insurance information in another state. That’s precisely what happened to a Flagler County woman who became the victim of medical identity theft. Her insurance company tried to charge her more than a quarter of a million dollars in bills associated with a leg amputation six weeks after she had surgery on her shoulder. She later learned her medical identity […]
HHS doesn’t have a clear strategy for combating medical identity theft, a Senate HELP Committee staffer said Feb. 1. The Department of Health and Human Services explained its efforts to combat medical identity theft in a Jan. 20 letter to the Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The letter was in response to a request by Senate HELP Committee and Finance Committee leaders in November for information about how the federal government is working to curb the rise in medical identity theft. Members of the Senate HELP Committee who aren’t satisfied with the HHS’s plan for helping […]
Lawmakers’ renewed interest in fighting medical identity theft has one group calling for an end to the ACA’s cap on fraud-prevention programs. Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee aren’t satisfied with the HHS’s current plan for helping victims of medical identity theft and are mulling ways to improve federal fraud-fighting efforts, an aide for the committee’s Republican majority told me recently. The federal government could bolster private sector efforts to combat medical identity theft by removing fraud spending from insurers’ medical loss ratio calculation, Ann Patterson, senior vice president and program director for the Medical […]
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Read our study: Healthcare Industry Investments to Fight Medical Identity Fraud
The 2015 Healthcare Industry Investments to Fight Medical Identity Fraud looks at the types of investments and priorities the industry is making to detect, prevent and mitigate medical ID theft and fraud.
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See the 2014 Fifth Annual Study on Medical Identity Theft
The 2014 Fifth Annual Study on Medical Identity Theft measures the prevalence, extent, and impact of medical identity theft in the United States to consumers and the healthcare industry.