Author: J. Chapman

Identity theft is the #1 crime in America. Revenue generated from this crime has surpassed drug trafficking. Worse, medical identity theft is the fastest growing type.

Want an HIV test, but don’t want it on your medical record? Don’t want to pay for that major surgery? Use someone else’s identity. Impossible? On the contrary, all too easy.

Imagine having Social Services knock on your door to take your children away from you because you are an unfit mother? Imagine being treated based on an incorrect medical profile (blood type, allergies, etc.

). Innocent victims like Andorie Sachs have experienced these nightmares firsthand. In Andorie’s case, it was simply because an individual posing as her gave birth at a hospital to a newborn that tested positive for drugs.

It gets worse. Andorie has a blood-clotting disorder such that administering the wrong blood type could be fatal. Because of the identity theft, the hospital would not allow her to see her own medical records lest the thief’s privacy rights be violated! Lawsuit, anyone?

Medical Identity Theft victims receive bills for services they never received, have inaccurate medical records that can easily proliferate throughout the EMR world, can be denied insurance due to inaccurate background or medical history checks, or can receive improper treatment.

In its ongoing efforts to combat identity theft, new legislation has been issued (FTC Red Flags Rule) that has a compliance deadline of May 1, 2009. Think your practice is covered because you are HIPAA compliant? Think the health care industry is exempt? Think again.

In an FTC open bulletin to the health care industry, it was clarified that, texas product liability attorney
, health care providers who accept insurance must comply with this legislation because the consumer is ultimately responsible for the medical fees and because the information retained in a patient’s file (medical and financial information, SSN, etc.

) pose a foreseeable risk of identity theft.

Losing, or having stolen, information about your patients or employees can be very costly. Kaiser Permanente recently suffered a breach in which employee information was compromised or, texas product liability attorney
, stolen. This has led to Kaiser paying for one year of credit monitoring for all 29,500 affected.

Other recent incidents include a former employee at Cedars-Sinai arrested for insurance fraud and identity theft, and multiple Southern California hospital staff inappropriately reviewing, and possibly leaking, information about celebrities.

Select Medical, a health care company in Texas, was recently fined $990,000 and 5 years of mandatory training for improper disposal of records.

In February 2009, it was determined that an employee of St. Anthony Central Hospital in Colorado took hundreds of records to commit fraud and identity theft. While, texas product liability attorney
, this particular employee did not have any prior criminal record, the importance of background checks when hiring employees cannot be underestimated.

Practices also face indirect costs such as, texas product liability attorney
, patient retention, practice reputation, and liability. According to ClO magazine, “if your company experiences a security breach, 20% of your affected customers will no longer do business with you, and 5% will be, texas product liability attorney
, hiring lawyers.”

Detailed and documented employee training is the most important aspect of your ongoing security and compliance efforts.

More than half of all identity theft occurs in the workplace and is due to employee error, and 61% of data breaches occur due to administrative error. A certified identity theft professional can help explain the laws affecting a practice and its employees, the numerous scams being perpetrated in the health care industry, how to reduce this risk, and can conduct risk assessments designed to identify concerns such as photo identification policies and security vulnerabilities.

The variety of scams is seemingly endless, and best avoided by vigilant staff who have been professionally trained to spot warning signs of identity theft. Some current scams include thieves posing as patients in order to steal unsecured medical files while unsupervised, and patients pretending to be a friend or relative in order to use their insurance.

Effective education causes a change in thinking and subsequently a change in the types of employee behaviors that can lead to data breaches and identity theft.

Restoring your identity can be a maddening and very time-consuming effort (175 – 607 hours per victim) which can affect employee productivity and attendance. According to Business and Legal Reports, another solution which provides an affirmative defense against fines, fees and lawsuits is to make some sort of identity theft protection plan available as a paid or optional employee benefit.

When considering which plan to implement, Assistant Attorney General Christine Nielsen advises the following, ” .

.. the biggest burden is the time you spend fighting back. Make sure the (lD theft) policy helps resolve medical, criminal, and employment-related issues … and addresses the, texas product liability attorney
, expense of hiring a lawyer.” As protection programs vary widely, consult a professional to ensure you are receiving the greatest possible value for your employee’s dollar.

There are many steps that all health care practices can and should do to reduce risk that, when performed, demonstrate to law enforcement, your clients, and employees that your company is taking all reasonable steps to combat this issue.

A proper compliance program needs to address the identification and detection of red flags as well as how to prevent and mitigate identity theft. Implementing the appropriate policy, employee security document, professional employee training, and mitigation plans does not need to be onerous or expensive. Professional resources are available to provide the training and documentation needed at little or no charge to the employer.

John Chapman is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist and Managing Partner of TBG Fraud Solutions, a national employee training company. You can learn more about our services by visiting: http://www.efraudsolutions.com

Source: ezinearticles.com