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Medical identity thieves strike it rich with sophisticated techniques

EHR Connection, May 19, 2008

Identity thieves are using increasingly sophisticated methods to steal patient information from healthcare providers, USA Today reported in a May 7 article.

The lawbreakers use medical information to obtain credit card numbers, drain bank accounts, and submit false bills to Medicare and other health insurers, according to the article.

Sophisticated crime rings consider stealing medical identities more profitable than targeting individuals’ bank accounts and credit cards, Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, an advocacy group, told USA Today.

"If you steal someone's medical identity, then multiply that by 100 or 1,000 [other thefts] and do fake billings, you can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars," says Dixon.

Perpetrators often “attempt to gain the assistance of insiders” and use new techniques to steal data, the paper reported. The perpetrators include a Cleveland Clinic employee in Florida convicted in a scheme that involved the sale of downloaded information to a relative who then submitted more than $2.5 million in false Medicare claims. Another is a former New York-Presbyterian Hospital employee who currently faces charges for allegedly accessing nearly 50,000 patient records.

Creditors sometimes seek payment from patients’ whose files contain false information from fake billings, according to the article. Patients often are unaware that their medical information has been accessed until a creditor calls.

Click here to read the USA Today article.

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