What is medical identity theft and what kinds of problems is it creating for consumers and the health care industry?
Medical identity theft involves using someone else’s identity and insurance coverage to access health care services. It is sometimes difficult for hospitals to catch identity theft because we treat all patients, many times in emergency situations and sometimes without identification to verify their identity. While rare, victims of identity theft may have their insurance company incorrectly billed and then begin to receive bills from the provider. In such a situation, the providers would not hold the victim liable once they were notified. As health care providers move to electronic medical records, and previous medical histories are immediately available to care givers, identity theft could also intermingle with medical information and become a patient safety issue if not discovered. BayCare now uses some cutting-edge technology to help combat medical identity theft. How does the technology work? BayCare’s Patient Secure Identity (PSI) is a biometric technology that identifies patients
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