The regulation requires entities that regularly extend credit to establish formal policies for detecting and preventing identity theft. The council said compliance with the rule imposes a “significant” burden on physicians, particularly those who operate independent practices or work in small groups.

The American Medical Association and two other physician organizations sued the FTC earlier this year to block it from subjecting doctors to the rule. The AMA filed the lawsuit through the Litigation Center of the AMA an the State Medical Societies.
The FTC’s position is that physicians are “creditors” under the law.

Although the ID theft policy requirements are technically in effect, the FTC has said it will not enforce them against doctors until Jan. 1, a deadline that has already been extended several times.

Although doctors have acknowledged that medical identity theft is a growing problem for patients and physicians, they say the added regulation duplicates existing laws.

“Physicians are already ethically and legally responsible for ensuring the confidentiality and security of patients’ medical information,” said AMA President Cecil B. Wilson. “The extensive bureaucratic burden of complying with the red flags rules outweighs any benefit to the public.”

According to the most recent statistics, about 250,000 people fall victim to medical identity theft each year in the United States.

Now, thanks to Jose Amid Juarbe, of Philadelphia, I see that men will also go to extreme lengths to make a big deal out of a small one.

He’s accused of stealing the identities of eight people and racking up $88,000-worth of bills in their names. The lion’s share of the expenditure went for two penis enlargement surgeries—one for him, and one for a friend—and two breast augmentation surgeries for two women friends.

Juarbe, 39, pleaded guilty this week to a whopping 42 counts of ID theft, writing bad checks, forgery and theft by deception. If he’s convicted on all counts and receives maximum sentencing, he could get a prison term of 246 years.

According to authorities, Carniola Santana, 25, stole customers’ information from Dino Melendez Realty, and sold the information to Juarbe. She is facing 14 ID theft and conspiracy charges.

Juarbe’s three enhanced friends also face theft charges. They are: Manuel Delarosa, age 30,; Maria Lopez, age 26; and Bedenissi Feliciano, 33.

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Well, patients from Baptist Medical Center in Montgomery, AL have found an easier, cheaper way to obtain their records: they just go to their local landfill.

Terri Neill and Ricky Holmes first discovered patient folders in and around a garbage truck in front of Cramton Bowl, a sports arena. The folders contained records from the radiology department at Baptist Medical Center, including X-Rays, MRIs ultrasounds—even surgical reports and doctors’ notes.

WFSA reporters then went to the city dump where they found hundreds more medical records that included patients’ names, Social Security numbers and insurance account numbers as well as other personally identifying information.

People whose personal identifying information or medical insurance account information is exposed are place in great jeopardy of becoming identity theft victims. Medical identity theft presents an even greater risk because when stolen insurance information is used erroneous and potentially fatal medical information can be interjected into the victims’ medical records.

Baptist Medical Center uses an outside vendor to dispose of medical records, so it’s unclear who’s responsible for the breach of federal law. A spokesman for the hospital said they will investigate

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With any luck, the Salisbury MD police might be able to provide an answer someday, but for the 100,000 patients who’ve visited Peninsula Orthopaedic Associates in Salisbury MD, there are bigger things to worry about in the immediate future.

The records, stolen March 25, contained extensive personal information, including names and Social Security numbers, as well as financial and insurance information. Patients are now at heightened risk of identity theft, credit fraud or medical identity theft.

Of these, medical identity theft may be the least well known and the most dangerous. Medical identity theft occurs when someone uses the identity of another to receive medical care.

Because erroneous medical information can become part of a patient’s records, the crime carries a significant health risk. The wrong blood type or misinformation about allergies could be deadly. Additionally, patients can be denied insurance coverage if their policies are maxed out by thieves, or if the victim needs a medical procedure their records show they’ve already received, such as an appendectomy.

The practice’s CEO, Brian K. Mathias, advised patients to place fraud alerts on their credit reports, and scrutinize any health benefit statements from their insurers.

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Hospital spokesman Jim Anderson said Kaiser Permanente has warned employees without a legitimate medical purpose to stay away from the records. Anderson also said the company notified the state of the violations. His comments were made during an interview with The Associated Press.

Kaiser’s data breach record is less than stellar.

• In February, the names, addresses, birthdates, and Social Security numbers of 30,000 company employees were discovered on a computer disk in the possession of a man arrested for other crimes.
• November 2006, a laptop containing the names, employee ID numbers, birthdates, gender and physician information of 38,000 patients was stolen from an employee’s car.
• July 2006, another laptop was stolen along with the names, phone numbers and patient ID numbers of 160,000 HMO members.
• June 2005, Kaiser was fined $200,000 for posting confidential medical and personally identifying information of 140 members on the Internet.

This is only the latest in a long string of similar violations of patients’ medical records, including several that affected celebrities who received treatment at UCLA hospitals. Farrah Fawcett, Britney Spears and California first lady Maria Shriver were also victims of similar violations.

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A Maryland federal court–in the course of a medical identity theft investigation–inadvertently published on the Internet the names, birthdates, and health care policy numbers of 226 people. Ninety-two Social Security numbers were also included it the publicly accessible information.

Identity theft experts say the data breach is more than ironic.

“It’s totally unacceptable,” said Lillie Coney, associate director of Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based lobbying group. “Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States and it’s primarily driven by criminals obtaining Social Security numbers.”

The patient information was contained within an FBI request for search warrants for the offices and files of two Washington area doctors, Ali Al-Attar and Abdul Fadul. The doctors are accused of using their patients’ information to bilk insurance companies out of more than $2.3 million for services the patients never received.

Many of the patients are employees at the Egyptian embassy; four of them are designated as senior embassy employees by the U.S. State Department of State.

According to a now-sealed statement by FBI agent Marisa L. Perez, the doctors billed an insurance company using the identity of one patient hundreds of times between May 2007 and August 2008.

Billing from the doctors claimed that patient visited one of their three clinics every 26 days during that period, and had the same tests performed at each appointment. The insurance company paid Al-Attar and Fadul $55,000 for the more than 400 procedures the doctors claimed they performed.

Medical identity theft takes place when someone receives medical attention or prescription drugs by posing as someone else. The benefits to the imposter are obvious, but the risks to the victim are higher than might be imagined.

For instance, imagine what would happen if Sue Smith was brought to the emergency room after a car wreck in which she’s received several injuries and has been bleeding heavily. Her medical records show she has Type A blood, so the doctors give her additional Type A blood.

What they don’t know is that a year before another woman used Sue Smith’s identity and insurance card to receive medical care at the hospital. The woman they’re currently treating—the real Sue Smith—has Type B blood, and could die because of the error.

Medical identity theft also carries financial risks. What if “the real Sue Smith” was billed $6,000 for a medical treatment her imposer received? Should she pay the bill? Or, should she refuse to pay and allow it to go to collections? Either way, she’s going to be damaged financially.

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The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Care Information Technology sponsored the first ever Medical Identity Theft Town Hall this week in Washington, DC.  Because there is no tracking system specifically for medical identity theft, there is no way of knowing exactly how widespread it is, or how many people have been affected. Anecdotal evidence indicates, though, that the crime is growing quickly and new legislation may be approved as early as next year.

Individual victims of medical ID theft can face life-threatening consequences when the medical information of the thief becomes part of their medical record. The administering of the wrong blood type or a drug to which the victim has an allergy could result in death.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) can thwart people trying to correct their records, an act intended to protect their personal information. Very often the same administrator who won’t let patients see their records, or refuses to make corrections, is responsible for placing the erroneous information there in the first place.

Selling the patient’s identity can become a multi-million dollar enterprise for the industrious practitioner. Using multiple patients’ information, the thieves bill insurance companies and federal programs for services never rendered.

Investigators have already recovered billions of dollars from fraudulent claims, which is good news. But Gary Cantrell, who directs the computer forensics investigations for the Health and Human Services Department, has a better view of the big picture.

He says those billions of dollars are “probably the tip of the iceberg.”

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