The Rise of Medical Identity Theft
A vicious type of identity theft is on the rise: medical identity. It occurs when someone steals your personal information to receive free medical care, goods, or prescription drugs. Medical identities are 20 to 50 times more valuable to criminals than financial identities. That may explain why approximately 1.5 healthcare data breaches occur each week on average.
What happens if you become a medical ID theft victim.
Medical identity theft can result in inaccuracies in medical records and costly false claims. It can also have life-threatening consequences. If a thief’s health information is mixed with your medical records, it can lead to a misdiagnosis or mistreatment. Misinformation in your records can plague your medical and financial well-being for years.
Remember, identity theft is a long-term crime. Fraudulent activity may not show up for six to 12 months or even longer. That’s why it is essential to continually monitor your personal identity.
Medical ID theft protection and comprehensive monitoring.
IdentityForce provides you with peace of mind around your medical identity by offering:
- Comprehensive identity monitoring of your medical accounts like your medical insurance identification number and rapid alerts of suspicious activity.
- A simple medical identity form giving you an easy way to secure a benefits payout report from your medical and health insurance companies.
- Protection under its nationwide $1 million master insurance policy with a special medical identity theft rider for victims of theft.
Even by taking every precaution, no one can prevent all identity theft. But if you become a victim, IdentityForce also gives you its “concierge-style” assistance in which certified identity theft specialists will write letters, make phone calls, and do whatever it takes to act on your behalf to fix any problems. Learn more about IdentityForce’s products and pricing here.
MEDICAL ID THEFT CHECKLIST
Review these red flags and complete our medical identity theft checklist to see what you can do to mitigate medical identity theft risk.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2015, Anthem Inc., the second-biggest health insurer in the U.S., said hackers broke into a database containing 80 million records containing personally identifiable information.
Source: Wikipedia
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