Best Results Organizing

Imagine two scenarios: 

In the first, someone who perpetrates insurance fraud and poses as you gets diagnosed with high blood pressure, H.I.V., migraines or any of a variety of health conditions.  He pays the required co-pay, fills out a change of address form, and you never notice (or even receive) the explanation of benefits, and go on about your merry way.  Years later, you apply for medical and life insurance and the company flags “your” prior diagnosis.  The insurance company may sell you the health and life insurance policies, but at a MUCH higher premium rate, plus they may refuse to cover you for what they deem a pre-existing condition.  You may not have had high blood pressure before, but you sure do now!

In the second scenario, imagine continuing on with the same insurance policy you’ve had all along, never realizing anything is amiss.  Then you find yourself ill with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s Disease or cancer, and begin the best treatment available, only to find that the insurance company is refusing to cover the costs because “you” have already reached your lifetime limit of benefits.  That lifetime limit may have been one million dollars, but if your thief’s illness (years prior) was serious enough and the stolen coverage went undetected by you, your life could now be in peril.  While your health and energy are at their weakest, you will have to fight to regain your medical identity; simultaneously, you’ll be unlikely to find any insurance company willing to take you on, as you now (however illegitimately) have a pre-existing condition.

Scared enough to take this seriously?  According to the World Privacy Foundation, over 250,000 Americans are victimized by medical identity theft each year.  Medical identity theft is widespread and serious, but just as with financial identity theft, there are precautions you can take.  In the follow-up post in our regular space this Tuesday (6/3/08), we’ll talk about how to safeguard your Social Security number, get the MIB (no, not the Men in Black) involved and using the power of a loud voice (to call the cops, involve the Feds and dispute fraud and mistakes.