The Threat of Medical Identity Theft

Security breaches and the consequences in financial and public relations are well known; but in today’s healthcare world, a new, perhaps more serious breach must be added to the list – medical identify theft. Medical identify theft has the potential of harming two people in one incident. When a patient is treated under another’s identity, the treatment may be appropriate for the patient being treated at the time. However, when this treatment record becomes a part of the medical information of the person whose identity has been stolen, the misinformation may lead to incorrect treatments for that patient.

Medical identify theft is usually identified when patients get claim summaries or bills from a facility for services they did not receive. There may be a lag in time between the actual service and its discovery. Of course, worse case would be that this breach is not detected until wrong treatment has been administered to a patient.

Because of the potential severity of medical identify theft, healthcare organizations must stay alert and be on top of security to detect potential breaches immediately and remove any wrong information from the record of the person to whom it does not belong.

The Health Information Management department at Marlboro Park Hospital works daily to ensure the safety of all patients’ identity. “Having policies, procedures, and practices in place helps us protect our patients”, states Vickie Stanton, RHIT, Director of Health Information Management.