Using the Internet Safely For Seniors

Understand Medical ID Theft

It’s important that seniors know about medical identity theft because it

can have very serious consequences. Financial ID theft can threaten

your finances and reputation. Medical ID theft can threaten your life.

Those who use your identity to gain access to medical care or services

may introduce changes to your medical records to get what they are

after. For example they may want drugs for resale. To accomplish this

they may alter your records to show you have conditions that require

the drugs. This can put you at real risk in an emergency when a deci-

sion is based off false information.

It can be very difficult to identify and to undo those changes.

Discovering medical identity theft can be harder to detect than finan-

cial identity theft and you may have to hunt to unearth it. Some peo-

ple discover medical identity theft when medical bills they aren’t

responsible for show up in the mail. Sometimes an insurance investi-

gator alerts victims, or doctors notice errors in patients’ medical files.

Based on some of the cases of medical identity theft that have come to

light, here’s some advice from http://www.worldprivacyforum.org:

➟ Closely monitor any “Explanation of Benefits” sent

by an public or private health insurer.

➟ Pro-actively request a listing of benefits from your

health insurers.

➟ Request a copy of current medical files from each

health care provider.

➟ File a police report.

➟ Correct erroneous and false information in your file.

➟ Keep an eye on your credit report.

➟ Request an accounting of disclosures.

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Chapter 13: Watching Your Pennies Online