There are two things in your house right now you should protect at all costs: your health insurance card and prescription pill bottles. In the wrong hands, they are a license to steal.

Jo Ellen Abou-Nader has seen it all when it comes to these cases. She leads the nationwide team at Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the U.S., working to prevent this type of fraud. She says thieves are after your information for two reasons.

The first, to get prescription drugs in your name to feed their drug habit. This can not only mess up your medical history, but cause doctors to treat you incorrectly.

“If there are prescriptions on your profile that you aren’t taking such as diabetes, you are going to be seen as a diabetic but you really aren’t,” said Abou-Nader.

And the second reason imposters are after your medical ID; they want to file false claims with your insurance company.

Click here to watch a video of this news report, including tips on how to keep your prescription and health insurance information safe.

July 7, 2014 by Anne Allred, KSDK.com