Medical Identity Theft: Prevention, Resources And Expert Advice About Medical ID Theft

Our Panel of Medical Identity Theft Experts

Robert Siciliano

Edi Goodman

Doug Pollack

James McCartney

Hiroko Naito

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Our Exclusive Interview With The Top Five Medical Identity Theft Experts

We spoke exclusively to the leaders in the Medical Identity Theft community about the problems that Medical Identity Theft is causing both consumers as well as our overwhelmed health care systems.

Their answers, warnings, and predictions are sending shockwaves to consumers and health care professionals as we all scramble to protect ourselves, our privacy, and now our medical records. Our experts include Robert Siciliano, Edi Goodman, Doug Pollack, James McCartney, and Hiroko Naito

• What future technology developments (products and services) are likely to come about or are already in progress to combat Medical ID theft?


• What potential problems do medical electronic records pose and how can people protect themselves from this technology?


• With health care costs already sky high, what kind of future cost increases should employers and employees expect as a result of Medical ID theft?

These questions and many others provide unqiue insight into both the problems and solutions of Medical Identity Theft

Question 1: What future technology developments (products and services) are likely to come about or are already in progress to combat Medical ID theft?

Siciliano: Numerous technology companies have authenticating products available to the health care industries that can effectively verifies who’s who. However these technologies are location specific and only prevent medical identity theft at the facility that requires them. Until a national standard is determined medical identity theft will not be stopped.

Goodman: Currently there are very few products and services available on the consumer side to help combat medical identity theft. This is due to the unique nature of medical identity theft and more importantly the type of information that is involved. For instance there is no medical data equivalent of “credit file” or “fraud” monitoring. Unfortunately, unless or until Congress begins to provide U.S. citizen’s with the same rights of both access and redress to medical records as consumers have to their credit file/data; products and services that could be made available to empower American consumers will be few and far between.

Pollack: While there are numerous obstacles to providing the same level of transparency and remediation for medical identity records as individuals have for their credit records, this is something that must come to be in the future. Patients need the ability to ensure that their medical records are complete and accurate both for financial and medical purposes.

McCartney: It is very hard to predict what the effective technologies will be to detect/prevent Medical ID Theft. It will greatly depend on the framework that is actually created for the NHIN. It is quite possible that a system similar to the credit system will develop, though I hope it does not. Think about it - although the credit system helps us to stop ID Theft, it is also the very thing that makes it so easy. It also has serious data quality issues. In other words, how accurate are most credit records? Most have errors. Another issue. Although many people are all about having access to their own records, there are serious issues with this approach. The easier it is for you to access your records, the easier it is for thieves. Also, not every one seeks to have accurate information. Some people would want to specifically exclude negative information. There are a thousand permutations and the answer will have to be a compromise of all of the parties.

Naito: Unfortunately the conventional ways of checking patient ID at the point of care has been - and still is - very basic in many healthcare facilities, such as having patients fill in forms and visually checking the photo ID on the drivers license. Even the EMPI is prone to the clerical error, since the final identity verification of the person in front of the receptionist is based on the human judgement. Biometric-based patient identification system helps accurately verify patient identity with lowest error rate possible. PatientSecure, solution by HT Systems, combined by Fujitsu PalmSecure, the palm vein pattern recognition technology, has already been in use by 3 healthcare systems with over 35 hospital locations and a number of physician's offices, and half a million patients are enrolled to the system today. Palm vein recognition technology reads vein information of your palm, and creates unique biometric signature that replaces other form of ID verification. On 1:1 match bases the technology boasts industry's leading level of accuracy with .00008% error rate, making sure that patient checking-in really is who he/she claims to be.

Question 2: Will there potentially be a medical records report, like a credit report that allows you to view and track your medical records online?

Siciliano: Yes. That is the crux of the Obama administrations intention to get medical records online. Numerous private corporations already have systems in place to offer this. Once there is a systematic adoption or requirement of the technologies then we will see it.

Goodman: Currently this is highly unlikely due to a few key factors. First, unlike financial data that sits with the three credit bureaus, medical records, at least at this point in time, are not centralized. This means that there is no one stop place that has all of your medical data. Therefore, a person’s COMPLETE medical file is often spread over several medical providers. Most of their medical record may be with their primary care physician, but maybe a person visited a dermatologist to have a mole removed once, or visited an Emergency Room or Urgent Care center for some stitches that needed to be put in on a Saturday night. These medical files are “peppered” around at numerous providers. This lack of centralized medical data makes monitoring medical files difficult at best. However, the Obama administration’s passage of the stimulus bill and HITECH Act will make the prospect of monitoring medical records by consumers more realistic in the future, but only if other factors fall into place as well. This is due in part to the Obama administration’s lofty goal of moving towards the universal use and acceptance of Electronic Health Records, which, by their very nature would be easier to monitor. But again, without centralizing this information and without the legal tools and abilities to access this information by third party monitoring providers or the public, these types of REAL solutions are far off on the horizon.

Pollack: The lack of an organization or site for aggregating medical records today significantly impairs an individuals’ ability to assess whether they are a victim of medical ID theft.

McCartney: Although many people are all about having access to their own records, there are serious issues with this approach. The easier it is for you to access your records, the easier it is for thieves. Also, not every one seeks to have accurate information. Some people would want to specifically exclude negative information. There are a thousand permutations and the answer will have to be a compromise of all of the parties.

Question 3: What potential problems do medical electronic records pose and how can people protect themselves from this technology?

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