Tuesday, January 24, 2012

1.5 Million Americans were Victims of Medical ID Theft


 


Identity fraud continues to be occurring more frequently . Protecting against identity fraud has fast become more increasingly important nowadays due to this.  It’s estimated that millions of hard working individuals are affected each and every single year from this crime.
The synthetic id theft happens to be more widespread these days. Such type of identity fraud inflicts heavy financial losses upon the victim. Since the victim has simply no other way than manage to pay for the fraudsters credit, medical identity thefts could cause deadly consequences towards the victim. Protection against identity fraud is essential if you would like to keep your finances in order. There are some simple steps that you can do to help prevent someone from wrongly using your information as their own.
The best defence against identity fraud to suit your needs including fraud resolution assistance, ATM and visa card protection, child monitoring services in case that your children ever are victims of Identity fraud. Essentially  financial guarantees to cover you should you ever are a victim from this silent crime. Protecting against identity fraud is definitely an significant step you’ll want to take in guarding your reputation together with your funds.
While id theft is actually a global issue that garners much media attention, most don’t realize that medical identity fraud is truly a serious and growing threat. Many respective authorities consider medical identity fraud to be the fastest growing crimes in the country. Because of the digital era of healthcare, the dangers are expected to increase as digital medical documents are more prevalent and the exchange of this data over expanding networks becomes more pervasive. Heightened concern over personal data security and privacy highlight the importance of having secure electronic medical identities.
If you find that you may have been a victim of identity fraud, what is important to act quickly. The more you delay, the greater financial damages which is going to occur, also the more challenging it’s going to be to correct those damages for future years. Relating to a recent Ponemon Institute study, nearly 1.5 million Americans are now victims of medical identity fraud having an estimated sum total of $28.6 billion – or approximately $20,000 per victim.  Further proof of the importance of the medical fraud trouble is the allocation of $1.7 billion for fraud detection within the 2011 U.S. Health and Human Services Department budget.  In 2009 In 2009, 68 reported healthcare data breaches within the U.S. put over 11.3 million patient records susceptible to exposure. Two notable instances include the Health Net breach as well as the Virginia Department of Health Professions breach.
The ARRA provides incentives for many doctors to use electronic health records (EHRs), so when health information exchanges (HIEs) gets to be more a commonplace, individuals are all the more in danger of medical identity fraud, from an intentional or unintentional breach of healthcare records, or even the “loss” or theft of any Medical Associates laptop. When this data is digitized and available via interconnected EHRs and HIEs, the opportunity of exposure grows exponentially.
Patients whose healthcare identities are compromised face severe lingering effects. Fraudulent healthcare events can leave misguided data in medical records. This incorrect information – like particulars about tests, medical determinations and procedures – can greatly have an affect on future healthcare and insurance packages and charges. Patients in many cases are unacquainted with medical identity fraud until a curious bill or even a surprising series of questioning from a doctor exposes the matter. Then, the responsibility of proof is usually on the patient and it may be a challenge to help get the patient’s legitimate medical records cleared up. The outcomes can even be life-threatening and may bring about significant medical mistakes and deaths.
In Closing: According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, Id theft will soon replace drug trafficking as the Number One crime in the nation. In fact, every 60 seconds, more than 28 people become a victim of identity theft, costing companies an estimated $56.6 billion annually. No matter the cause or how it is discovered, for the victim, identity theft typically leads to many lost hours of work and sleep dealing with creditors to clean up the mess and restore accounts.

ID Theft Protection

 Richard Figley
Independent Associate




1-614-395-2313





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