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Tip: 10 ways to help a victim of identity theft

Compliance Monitor, October 27, 2004

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Under HIPAA, you have an obligation to mitigate the harm if one of your employees steals a patient's identity, says, Vickie L. McCormick, JD, a partner at Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson in Minneapolis.

"I don't know that just telling someone, 'I think one of our employees may have stolen your identity and done something with it' is quite adequate," she says.

Here are 10 ways you can advise the victim after he or she has been notified of the theft:

1. File a police report and send copies to banks and credit card companies

2. Fill out an FTC complaint form

3. Notify the patient's local post office that identity theft has occurred because mail fraud is often a part of the crime

4. Inform the SSA if the patient's Social Security number was fraudulently used

5. Contact the Internal Revenue Service if the patient encountered a tax violation as a result

6. Review his or her credit report with the three main credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union

7. Have the credit bureaus issue a fraud alert

8. Inform check verification companies if checks or checking accounts were involved

9. Notify fraud or credit departments at credit organizations

10. Document all contacts with the above parties-in fact, providers should keep a thorough record as well

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