Ironic twist makes this incident noteworthy!
Even high profile identity theft advocates are vulnerable to the threat of data loss, data compromise and data crime.
Representative Joe Barton (R-Texas) was among 3000 patients whose records were reported missing by the National Institutes of Health. An NIH laptop containing the medical records for the patients was reported stolen from the trunk of a vehicle according to a report this month by The Associated Press.
Here’s the irony. Barton is a founder of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, whose mission among other things is to educate members of Congress and their staffs on matters of individual privacy.
It is noteworthy that Rep. Barton only found out about his own breach in press reports. Barton has asked the inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department to investigate why the information wasn’t encrypted and why the NIH delayed disclosure of the breach.
As difficult as it may seem to protect your financial identity, your medical records are much harder to secure. This is primarily because patients have no control over the handling and care of their own personal medical records.
The federal regulation designed to prevent these unsettling scams is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Unfortunately, it can be extremely difficult for patients to correct inaccuracies in their medical records, because insurance companies are not compelled to correct records which they did not create.
According to a report on msnbc.com, one medical identity theft victim had the contents of her wallet removed and despite the fact that she quickly cancelled all her credit cards, had almost $14,000 in prescription meds and treatments charged up in her name. Over the next four months, restoring her identity became a part-time job. She fought off bill collectors, struggled to get her own medical prescriptions paid for and nearly got arrested herself on suspicion of being a co-conspirator in the scam.
The numbers can be deceiving. According to the Federal Trade Commission, only 3 percent of U.S. identity-crime victims have their information used by others to obtain medical services or false claim reimbursements. This still means that nearly 250,000 Americans may be victims each year! The rising cost of health-care will only make these crimes more prevalent going forward.
The lurking dangers of not being able to access your own health benefits or having your medical records polluted with potentially life threatening mis-information makes this topic a sure recipe for more than just heartburn.
