Archive for ‘General’ Category
Doctor, It Hurts When Total Strangers Do This! (Medical Identity Theft, part 2)
Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor: Then stop doing it.
Note to Paper Doll readers: Due to character limitations on posts, this is actually Part 2 of an extended post. To read the introduction about why medical identity theft is so dangerous, and to link to videos and anecdotes so you take this as seriously as Paper Doll does, be sure to CLICK HERE.
Now, to be sure you’re not one of the 250,000 annual victims of medical identity theft:
1) Protect Your Security…Your SOCIAL SECURITY
Grab your wallet and pull out your health insurance card or Medicare/Medicaid card. If your insurance company or state government-provided insurance, or Medicare or Medicaid, is still using your Social Security number as your insurance identification number, your medical identity is as easy to purloin as your wallet can be plucked out of your purse or pocket.
Just as you shouldn’t carry your Social Security card, if you can’t persuade your insurance company to change your identification number (which more and more companies are doing, at the behest of state governments), DO NOT CARRY your card with you unless absolutely necessary.
Instead, photocopy the front and back of your card, but use a Sharpie to blacken the last four digits. In a non-emergency situation, you can give the last four digits to the medical offices yourself; in cases of emergency, you can be prepared by writing the name and number for your emergency contact on the photocopy, and your emergency contact can provide those last four digits to a medical provider.
2) Request copies of your medical records, insurance claims and credit reports.
First, find out what medical payments your insurance company has made for your (or your dependents’) medical care. Log into your health insurance company account and retrieve past medical billing records and EOBs (explanation of benefits). If your company does not allow digital access, you may have to call or write a certified letter to request copies of your documentation. Even if you haven’t seen a doctor recently, note this task on your calendar once per year so that you can be certain your insurance company is not providing benefits to an “alternate you” at an alternate address.
Next, contact any of your actual doctors and health care professionals for records you haven’t saved during the year, as well as any previously unknown doctors who claim to have treated you, and request copies of your medical records, as allowed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). By law, they are allowed to charge you a nominal fee for the cost of photocopies and their staff’s time, but most physicians are willing to waive this if they are given ample time to collect the data. Hard copies of X-rays can be more pricey, and unwieldy, so you may request them to be sent digitally. (Click here for state protections, in addition to HIPAA.)
[It’s unlikely that a physician’s office would refuse to help you unless he or she (or the office staff) were complicit in some kind of fraud. If your doctor refuses you access to your own medical records, file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at 1-800-368-1019 or follow their online instructions.]
If you read and followed the advice in the prior posts in this series, you’ve already accessed free copies of your credit reports from the main credit reporting agencies. When reviewing your financial records, make sure there are no liens or reports of medical debts in for services or locations unrelated to you.
Perhaps most importantly, contact the MIB. (No, not the Men In Black, though alien security services might be less scary than knowing some central organization knows more about you than your mother or spouse!) Just as the major credit bureaus keep copies of your financial records, health insurance companies maintain and share your medical history – at a central repository called the MIB (Medical Information Bureau). The MIB exists to help insurance companies detect and eliminate fraud on insurance applications; for example, if there’s a discrepancy between your report of no history of cancer or high blood pressure and a previous notation about such things in your record, the MIB should catch it.
Your MIB report might include information regarding blood pressure, diabetes, obesity or ongoing reproductive issues, but also data on activities your insurance companies have found out about, anything from smoking to bungee jumping. In some cases, your MIB report can contain data regarding drug-related criminal activity and a bad driving record, depending on the depth of reportage. (So yes, the MIB is scary, but also useful, a lot like the Men in Black.)
Just as your credit report from one of the credit bureaus can make or break your chance of getting a good interest rate on a credit card, mortgage or car loan, your MIB feel can influence the cost of any health insurance premium, or even block whether you can obtain insurance at all! Since the Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees you the right to a free copy of your report, call 866-692-6901 to order your report (and, if necessary, to dispute any errors found therein.)
3) Review your records as if your life depended on it—because it does!
Create small blocks of time in your schedule to tackle this project so that you don’t become overwhelmed. Sit down with your medical records, insurance claims and notes on lab reports to make sure the dates, locations and maladies track properly, and be on the lookout for unusual entries. If you haven’t left the State of California in two years and haven’t seen any physicians but your regular doctor, but there’s an emergency room notation from nine months ago in Brooklyn, that’s an obvious red flag. Also check for variations on the spelling of your name, as those can provide hints to fraudulent claims (or, of course, sloppy physician handwriting).
Generally, search the documentation for services (visits, lab tests, consultations, etc.) never rendered to you (or your dependents). Watch for mistaken or otherwise inaccurate diagnoses, as well as contact information or address changes that don’t reflect anywhere you (or your dependents) have ever resided (or stayed, if there’s a chance you used medical assistance while traveling) or home/work/cellular numbers you’ve ever used.
In addition to medical information, take note of financial information, such as notes regarding payment of co-pays and odd records regarding items in dispute or delayed collections.
Finally, be sure to note what disclosures of “your” medical history have been made to other government or social service agencies or health providers. Your MIB report can help with this, as it includes a list of companies that have reported information about your medical identity to the MIB during the 12 months prior to your request. (One note: records are purged after seven years. If you haven’t applied/reapplied for insurance in the past seven years, you may not have an MIB report.)
4) Dispute any misinformation.
This may mean making phone calls, personal visits or even certified letters, but armed with your own documentation, dispute any and all incorrect data with your health provider(s), your insurance carrier, and, if necessary, the credit bureaus. Request, or if necessary, demand investigation of the questionable material and, once investigated, removal from your records. Under HIPAA, a medical provider or insurance company that corrects an error is legally obligated to contact each party to whom it has previously released your information (including pharmacies, labs, insurance companies, etc.) to attempt to correct and revise their error.
Copies of all disputes should be in writing. If you have a telephone conversation, transcribe it (by taking notes during the call), and send follow-up copies to the person with whom you’ve been chatting to reiterate what each of you has said, done and/or agreed to do.
5) Call a Cop! Call the Feds!
Seriously. If you find that you are a victim of medical identity theft, file a police report. Do this even if the fraud didn’t actually cost you money, even if you don’t currently have insurance, even if “hate making a fuss”. Someone who has stolen your medical identity would have no compunction regarding stealing your financial identity or legal identity. Beyond this, someone willing to purloin your identity might also be guilty of drug-seeking and related crimes, so completing a police report might be a prophylactic against the police mistaking the bad guy impersonating you for the real you.
You can also call the Federal Trade Commission to file a medical identity theft complaint. The FTC has a toll-free Identity Theft Hotline at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338) and you can file a complaint online, as well.
Also, if you have been the victim of Medicare/Medicaid fraud, call 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477) or report the fraud online.
6) Get Organized!
The best way to tell whether other people’s records are flawed is to compare them with your own carefully-kept records. Your family filing system should include a section for medical, dental and vision care records, including the physicians you’ve seen, dates of treatment or tests, test results, diagnoses and general treatment plans.
Preserve your financial identity to safeguard your lifestyle; preserve your medical identity to save your life.
Finally, as my dear Paper Mommy would say, zay gezunt!
The Big OUCH!!! (Medical Identity Theft–Part 1)
Previously, we’ve discussed the importance of organizing your records and yourself to
Imagine two scenarios:
In the first, someone who perpetrates
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
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.
Meet you back here on Tuesday morning…until then, review some cautionary anecdotes, watch these two YouTube videos here and (especially) here and stay healthy!
A Boy Named Sue May Hate His Name (but that doesn’t mean you can steal it!)
Identity theft is not merely inconvenient, and identity thieves do not just steal the time it takes for you to get your finances back in order. While the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reports that the average victim of identity theft spends 175+ hours recovering losses and restoring his or her good name, lost time is actually the least of your worries.
Millions of Americans are victimized by identity theft each year. Although the actual number of victims has decreased slightly in recent years (from 10.1 million in 2003 and 9.3 million in 2005 to 8.4 million in 2007), the average fraud per person rose from $5,249 in 2003 to $6,383 in 2006. In other words, while the chance of it being you has decreased, the impact if you are the victim has increased!
In most situations, thieves make a few purchases using a purloined credit card number and then move on to the next victim. Keeping organized records and quickly alerting the credit card company means you will suffer minimal financial loss. However, in the most dangerous cases, identity thieves CREATE AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF “YOU”—causing untold damage. If someone steals your identity and then uses it to procure services at a hospital (about which we’ll chat next week), depending on the thief’s diagnoses, it could prevent you from getting health or life insurance later on in life. These bad guys don’t merely ruin your credit rating and keep you from getting insurance, passports and jobs. You could even get arrested if someone commits a felony using your forged identity.
Almost worse than thinking about the potential pitfalls of becoming a victim of identity theft, because of the instances of major corporations being hacked or scammed, breaching our personal data is happening more often (226 million cases at recent count) regardless of our own preventative measures.
Organization is still your best shot at guarding against identity theft, but because upwards of 2.4 million Americans have been left open to identity theft through computer hackers of major companies and universities, defensive moves aren’t enough. Organization is also your key move after the criminals strike, so use these tips as a checklist to towards recovery of your good name.
1) CONTACT THE AUTHORITIES
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CALL one of the three CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES to issue a 90-DAY FRAUD ALERT and get a free copy of your credit report to see how pervasive the problem is. After you receive your report, call the agencies back to request an fraud alert extension to 7 years.
Equifax 800-525-6285 Experian 800-397-3742 TransUnion 800-680-7289 -
CALL your CREDITORS. Close all tampered credit card accounts and have them marked as “closed at consumer’s request” and have your accounts replaced. Make sure you aren’t held responsible for fraudulent accounts opened in your name. If your checks are stolen, call your bank AND Telecheck:
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Telecheck 800-366-2425 -
CALL the POLICE. Filling out a detailed crime report allows you to extend your fraud alert from 90 days to 7 years and helps you officially correct records. This is your main insurance against arrest and prosecution if someone steals your identity and commits crimes.
2) PUT EVERYTHING IN WRITING
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Keep a LOG BOOK of every conversation. Every time you call a credit agency, creditor or the police, write down the date and time of the call, the name of the person you talked to, their badge or ID number and their contact information. Note what they promised to do.
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Follow up every call with a CERTIFIED LETTER confirming the details of your conversation. Fill out your lenders’ FRAUD FORMS and send copies of the police report.
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File a COMPLAINT with the Federal Trade Commission.
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Fill out an ID THEFT AFFIDAVIT, available online (and you can find the FTC’s instructions for filling it out here:
- Write special needs letters (i.e., to report identity theft on behalf of a deceased relative), check the letter templates at the Identity Theft Resource Center.
3) MAINTAIN EXCELLENT RECORDS
Keep a special section in your filing system for logs of phone calls and copies of your letters, affidavits and fraud forms. Keep copies of anything the agencies, creditors or police send you.
OPEN YOUR MAIL as soon as it arrives and check every bill for accuracy; then organize files for each account, dating back at least a year, to track and verify transactions.
4) REMEMBER THAT THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION via phone or computer unless you initiate the contact and it is SECURE.
Use the free web site http://AnnualCreditReport.com to check all three of your credit reports every year. Investigate anything odd.
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DON’T CARRY your Social Security Card in your wallet. Protect your Social Security Number as if it’s worth a million dollars.
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SHRED convenience checks and anything containing personal account information before discarding.
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Call 888-5-OPTOUT to get off mailing lists for pre-approved credit cards so no one can steal the offers from your mailbox and apply for credit in your name.
Keeping organized helps prevent ID theft, alerts you to a crisis sooner and helps you recover your finances, your legal standing and your good name after the fact. Fight back, and be careful out there!
For more information regarding financial identity theft recovery, check out these excellent resources:
- Federal Trade Commission
- Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
- Identity Theft Resource Center
- Call For Action (to get media help with your identity recover activities)
- Social Security Administration (if someone steals your SSN number)
- The FTC’s special report for military families dealing with ID theft
- The President’s Task Force on Identity Theft
- Fight Identity Theft blog
- AARP Preventing Identity Theft Seminar
- Internet Crime Complaint Center (in partnership with the FBI)
- U.S. Department of Justice Identity Theft and Fraud Division
Next week, we’ll be talking about the scariest (in Paper Doll‘s opinion) type of fraud, medical identity theft. See you then!
Paper Doll Wishes You All A Safe Memorial Day Weekend
Lest I continue
My complacent way
Help me to remember that somewhere
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?
Will The Real Paper Doll Please Stand Up? (Organizing To Prevent Identity Theft)
“It’s not a soap opera until somebody’s evil twin shows up.”
When Paper Doll was far too young, summers were spent watching soap operas. One particularly nifty option was One Life To Live, where the overarching premise (more so than on any other serial), was that almost every character had a secret life, dual personality or evil twin. Delicious as it was, I always feared the prospect of someone else pretending to be Paper Doll (I guess at that tender age, I was Paper Dolly) and turning in badly done homework. Never could my childish brain have imagined the horrors of someone intentionally taking on my persona to cheat me (or my creditors, or my insurance company) out of money! But identity theft is definitely more frightening than Viki/Niki or Marco/Mario.
Organizing is about saving time and money, increasing productivity and reducing stress, but skipping one small step in the organizing process can actually endanger your finances, your future and your good name. You probably know how important it is to eliminate unnecessary paper clutter, but with identity fraud one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, it’s equally important to safeguard your personal data.
Each time you rifle through your daily mail or finish preparing your tax return, you may be tempted to discard unnecessary scraps of paper in the trash. Research indicates, however, that the number one source for identity thieves to get your private information is not the Internet or hacking corporate accounts, but old-fashioned dumpster-diving. In the war on identity theft, be sure you aren’t providing the bad guys with any ammunition.
Before tossing any paper into the trash, I strongly urge you to follow these guidelines to protect your hard-earned credit history.
SHRED any documents that can be used to help a thief set up a false version of your identity. These items include unused pre-approved credit card offers, bank and credit card convenience checks, balance transfer forms and anything bearing account or Social Security numbers, PINs or phone/Internet passwords.
CUT UP expired or canceled credit and debit cards into tiny pieces to ensure that no one could piece them back together. Do not be tempted to just cut the card in half. While a brick-and-mortar store would not accept a card cut in two, a thief can still use the numbers to make Internet and catalog purchases and would still have access to the super all-powerful three-digit access code on the signature line on the back of the card.
NEVER PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (including Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, account numbers or passwords) via standard email, nor over the phone if you did not initiate the call. If a store cashier asks you to provide your Social Security number on a check, refuse to do so. The momentary annoyance of explaining your reasoning to the store manager is far less than the frustrating loss of time and money spent repairing your damaged name.
On the Internet, credit card purchases are only considered secure transactions if the purchase is made on a page whose address starts with https:// instead of the usual http://. Also, look for a small lock-shaped icon in a corner of your browser window, indicating the merchant has made efforts to secure your personal data.
DON’T GET PHISHED. It’s much more likely that an identity thief would try to steal your personal information via a sneaky email than by phone. Thieves create a false email (and hide behind the mask of your financial institution) for the purpose of getting you to click on their link and enter personal data.
If you ever get an email stating that there is a problem with your bank or credit card account, directing you to click on a link to log in and check or change your information, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! Then take a deep breath, delete the email and log in to your account through your computer browser’s “bookmark” or “favorite” listing or by manually typing the usual address into your browser. Some attempts at phishing are crude and laden with misspellings and awkward phrasings. However, identity thieves are becoming very adept at creating sophisticated emails and faux sites which appear identical to the form and style of a financial institution’s logo, font and infrastructure. (Brief sidebar: the IRS never sends you email about your return, refund or rebate!)
MEMORIZE your personal identification numbers (PINs) and passwords. Hide them in safe locations away from prying eyes and hackers. If you have a poor memory and must keep your passwords accessible, consider creating a cheat sheet with the clues instead of the actual passwords. For example, instead of writing down your password of ElvisVermontMaple, write down “1stConcertFavoriteSyrup”, or some equally obscure bit of information to hint at the information only you need to know.
Be sure to keep PINs away from the cards they protect, and never carry your PINs in your wallet. Again, the modern world is keeping your memory fuzzy, write clues. If your PIN is 0401, the clue might be “Don’t fool me” to stand for the date 04/01, April Fool’s Day. When you are given the opportunity to pick your own PIN numbers, NEVER use your birthday or part of your Social Security Number, as identity thieves can find such personal information easily. Aim for numbers representing obscure dates significant for sentimental reasons (like your first kiss) or the combined jersey numbers of your two favorite athletes.
STORE canceled checks, line-of-credit or convenience checks and account statements out of the sight and out of reach of delivery, sales or service workers, pollsters or fundraisers. You may think you’d never let these people past your doorstep, but it’s impossible to foresee what might distract your attention, such as the cries of an injured child from the back of the house.
SIGN new credit cards as soon as they arrive and store them in a safe place, away from your home’s high traffic areas. If it is necessary for you to carry the card with you, immediately put it in your wallet or card-holder, and guard plastic as diligently as you do your cash.
CHECK your credit history report with all three credit-reporting agencies annually. Request reports from:
- Equifax 800-685-1111
- Experian 888-397-3742
- Trans Union 800-680-7289
Due to Federal regulations, you can even get these reports for free, once per year, by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. This site is an official joint venture of the three reporting agencies. Do not be tempted by similarly-titled web sites which purport to provide you with free credit reports, but first require you to pay for membership or purchase other services.
Review the reports to ascertain that no accounts were fraudulently opened in your name. Also check to make sure that you are not listed as an authorized user for any card to which you do not have access. Report any suspicious or incorrect information to the credit reporting agencies immediately.
Also, if you suspect check fraud, contact the major check verification companies to request that retailers using their databases be notified not to accept stolen checks:
- Telecheck 800-710-9898
- Int’l Check Services 800-631-9656 (Note: International Check Services has been acquired by First Data/Telecheck)
- Equifax 800-437-5120
Your credit history is synonymous with your good name. Identity thieves don’t have a shred of decency, so don’t give them a shred of evidence to use against you!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be talking about how to organize to recover from financial identity theft, and also how to protect yourself against the growing crime of medical identity theft. Until then, to learn more about privacy and identity theft, I direct you to the impressive web site for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, where you can find, among other things:
- A detailed Privacy Survival Guide
- Sample letters for protecting your privacy and identity
- Identity theft fact sheets, quizzes and case studies
and a cornucopia of essential information to make you paranoid, not only about thieves and evil twins, but about your employer, the government, and the person behind you in the checkout line.
Be alert, be cautious, but be sensible. Don’t let the bad guys turn your life into a soap opera!
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