September 16, 2024
Health insurance is intended to ensure individuals and families have access to essential treatments, preventive services, and emergency care. Unfortunately, it has also become a target for scammers seeking financial gain.
In February, Change Healthcare experienced a cyber-attack that affected thousands of healthcare providers, insurers, and policyholders across the country. Reports indicate that approximately 50% of all U.S. medical claims may be at risk. To illustrate, if you're in a waiting room with nine other people, there's a high likelihood that five of you could become victims of medical identity theft within the year. The fallout from this fraud is immense, impacting countless individuals and their ability to access healthcare. Once your medical information is exposed online, identity thieves can exploit it to file false claims, purchase costly prescriptions, and more, all charged to your account.
The most troubling aspect is how some people discover they've been affected. Some face tax or mortgage fraud, while others visit the doctor to determine if they need a procedure, only to receive a rejection letter from their insurance provider. The letter states that the insurance won't cover the procedure because the benefits have been exhausted due to multiple other procedures that year. However, the individual never underwent those procedures; someone else used their medical ID for their own treatments.
It's not just individuals at risk; deceitful organizations can misuse your medical information for fraudulent billing schemes. They submit false claims for medical services you never requested or received, collect their payments, and leave you with the bill. In July, 193 defendants, including 76 doctors, nurse practitioners, and other licensed medical professionals, were charged with participating in various healthcare fraud schemes, resulting in $2.75 billion in false billings to federal programs. Medical fraud is a real threat!
How to Identify If You're a Victim:
Here are 10 indicators that your medical ID may have been stolen and is being used by cybercriminals:
- Unexpected Medical Bills: Receiving bills for medical services you didn't receive is a significant warning sign.
- Collection Notices: Debt collectors contact you for unpaid medical bills that aren't yours.
- Errors in Medical Records: Discovering inaccuracies in your medical records, such as treatments you never had, incorrect diagnoses, or unfamiliar medical histories.
- Insurance Issues: Your health insurance claims are denied because your benefits are maxed out, or you're told you've reached your coverage limit despite not using the services.
- Notification from Your Insurance Provider: Receiving alerts from your health insurance provider about claims or services you don't recognize.
- Unknown Accounts: Finding new health insurance accounts or medical records under your name that you didn't create.
- Discrepancies in Your Explanation of Benefits (EOB): Your EOB statements from your insurer list medical services you didn't receive.
- Being Denied Insurance: Facing difficulty obtaining life or health insurance due to medical conditions you don't have being listed in your records.
- Calls from Medical Providers: Receiving calls from doctors or medical facilities about appointments or follow-ups for treatments you never had.
- Unfamiliar Prescriptions: Notices about prescriptions being filled in your name that you did not authorize or receive.
How Can You Prevent Becoming A Victim
Of Medical ID Fraud?
Don't
become the next medical ID theft victim. Here are a few steps you can take to
protect yourself:
● Check For Health Care Breaches: Use a searchable database, like this one, to find out if your health care
information has been compromised.
● Secure Your Records: Store paper copies of medical
records in a safe or lockbox to prevent unauthorized access. If your health care
organization's system is compromised and records are lost, altered or unable to
be accessed, you will be glad you did this.
● Shred Documents: Shred any documents with
personal information before disposing of them.
● Monitor Your Medical Records: Regularly request and review your medical records from your health care
providers and look for unfamiliar treatments, diagnoses or other discrepancies.
● Review Insurance Bills: Carefully review explanation of benefits
(EOB) statements from your insurance provider for any services you did not
receive and question unfamiliar or unclear charges. Contact your insurer immediately if you see any charges or services
that you don't recognize. Afterward, report any billing errors to the
credit bureaus at IdentityTheft.gov.
● Dispose Of Prescription Labels: Remove labels from empty
prescription bottles before discarding them! These labels can contain
information that, believe it or not, can be used to steal your identity.
● Monitor Your Credit: At AnnualCreditReport.com, you are able to get three free
reports a year to keep an eye on any suspicious activity.
Health
care will always be around and will also always be a target for hackers.
Attacks on hospitals, doctors' offices and other medical facilities will
continue. It's important that you are taking proactive measures to protect
yourself. We can help you find out how you're at risk with our FREE Discovery Call. Using this technology, we can quickly find out if your information has
been put up for sale on the dark web or if you've been a victim of a data
breach. To book your Discovery Call, call us at 281-402-2620 or click here.
