Source:  Associated Press

The latest form of identity involves targeting your kid’s number long before the little one even has a bank account.

Hundreds of online businesses are using computers to find dormant Social Security numbers — usually those assigned to children who don’t use them — then selling those numbers under another name to help people establish phony credit and run up huge debts they will never pay off.

Authorities say the scheme could pose a new threat to the nation’s credit system. Because the numbers exist in a legal gray area, federal investigators have not figured out a way to prosecute the people involved.

“If people are obtaining enough credit by fraud, we’re back to another financial collapse,” said Linda Marshall, an assistant U.S. attorney in Kansas City. “We tend to talk about it as the next wave.”

The sellers get around the law by not referring to Social Security numbers. Instead, just as someone might pay for an escort service instead of a prostitute, they refer to CPNs — for credit profile, credit protection or credit privacy numbers.

Julia Jensen, an FBI agent in Kansas City, discovered the scheme while investigating a mortgage-fraud case. She has given presentations to lenders across the Kansas City area to show them how easy it is to create a false credit score using these numbers.

“The back door is wide open,” she said. “We’re trying to get lenders to understand the risks.”

It’s not clear how widespread the fraud is, mostly because the scheme is difficult to detect and practiced by fly-by-night businesses.

But the deception is emerging as millions of Americans watch their credit scores sink to new lows. Figures from April show that 25.5 percent of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. They will have trouble getting credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.

The scheme works like this:

Online companies use computers and publicly available information to find random Social Security numbers. The numbers are run through public databases to determine whether anyone is using them to obtain credit. If not, they are offered for sale for a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

Because the numbers often come from young children who have no money of their own, they carry no spending history and offer a chance to open a new, unblemished line of credit. People who buy the numbers can then quickly build their credit rating in a process called “piggybacking,” which involves linking to someone else’s credit file.

Many of the business selling the numbers promise to raise customers’ credit scores to 700 or 800 within six months.

If they default on their payments, and the credit is withdrawn, the same people can simply buy another number and start the process again, causing a steep spiral of debt that could conceivably go on for years before creditors discover the fraud.

Jensen compared the businesses that sell the numbers to drug dealers.

“There’s good stuff and bad stuff,” she said. “Bad stuff is a dead person’s Social Security number. High-quality is buying a number the service has checked to make sure no one else is using it.”

Credit bureaus can quickly identify applications that use numbers taken from dead people by consulting the Social Security Administration’s death index.

Social Security numbers follow a logical pattern that includes a person’s age and where he or she lived when the number was issued. Because the system is somewhat predictable, sellers can make educated guesses and find unused numbers using trial and error.

A “clean” CPN is a number that has been validated as an active Social Security number and is not on file with the credit bureaus. The most likely source of such numbers are children and longtime prison inmates, experts said.

Robert Damosi, an analyst with Javelin Strategy & Research, said the crime can come back to hurt children when they get older and seek credit for the first time, only to discover their Social Security number has been used by someone else.

“Those are the numbers criminals want. They can use them several years without being detected,” Damosi said. “There are not enough services that look at protecting the Social Security numbers or credit history of minors.”

Since the mortgage meltdown of 2008, banks have tightened lending policies, but many credit decisions are still based solely on credit scores provided by FICO Inc. and the three major credit unions: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Federal investigators say many businesses do not realize that a growing number of those credit scores are based on fraudulent information.

“Lenders don’t understand that when they pay money to go through a service, they may be receiving false information,” Jensen said. “They think when they order the information from credit bureaus, it must be true.”

Without special scrutiny, credit profiles created with the scheme are not immediately distinguishable from other newly created, legitimate files.

Investigators say the businesses clearly know they are selling Social Security numbers, but it’s difficult to prove. The sellers use complex disclaimers that disavow illegal activity and warn customers against using their numbers in place of Social Security numbers.

The businesses also instruct customers to provide false information when using the number to apply for credit. Customers are told to use their real name and date of birth, but to avoid listing any addresses or phone numbers they’ve used in the past. They’re also told to avoid any other information that connects the new, clean credit profile with the old, damaged one.

Craig Watts, a spokesman for credit reporting agency FICO Inc., said FICO has tools available for businesses to protect themselves from this type of fraud, but they are not cheap. And many lenders are slow to adopt FICO’s new formulas, which are updated every few years.

Some companies that sell the numbers have lavish, high-tech websites. Others run no-frills ads on sites like Craigslist.

Jim Buckmaster, president and CEO of the San Francisco-based Craigslist, recently told the AP in an e-mail that there were “fewer than 200″ classifieds on his site that used the word “CPN.”

Within an hour of that e-mail exchange, dozens of the ads in cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York had been pulled from the site. Many were reposted the next day.

An AP reporter called several of the sites, but got only recordings asking callers to leave a message with contact information.

Experts say the fraud will be difficult to stop because it’s so easily concealed and targets such vulnerable people. Other than checking with the credit bureaus to see if there is a credit file associated with your child’s Social Security number, spokesmen at FICO, the Social Security Administration and the FTC said there are no specific tools for safeguarding the number.

“This is an invisible crime, with invisible victims who don’t have enough support out there to help them,” said Linda Foley of the ID Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

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My Take: One more thing to add to your list of things to worry about.  This is right up there with data recovery solutions for business and whether or not your  Eden Prairie MN property management company is handling your property transactions with care and honesty.  Not that all property management companies can’t be trusted, but some are notorious for requesting fix-it funds and never making the repairs, collecting rents and never depositing them, etc.

But stealing kids’ SS numbers is a real and new threat and it’s unfortunate we have to even worry about. I would imagine that the best thing to do is use the number for something even if you don’t need to, just so thieves don’t target it.

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Many people are aware that some professions and industries have weathered the recession quite well and for those individuals who are training in certain industries it seems almost inevitable that they will be able to choose from a significant number of different jobs that are a part of the most popular sections of health care job growth. A recent study suggests that the best growth in health care jobs is likely to be in the area of dental hygienist jobs, which was specifically singled out amongst a good number of different professions that offered enhanced job potential and growth.

Boston Legal For Real People

Any Boston criminal defense law firm you hire should offer you verifiable references and fee information up front.  You can check with the Massachusetts federal attorney office to find out what your options for recourse are should you think you might have been overcharged or otherwise defrauded by a Boston lawyer.

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Source: CNN
A homeless man has been accused of breaking into a closed down California bar and selling alcohol to unsuspecting patrons, even prompting news coverage, before being recognized as a local transient.

The bar, called the Valencia Club, had gone out of business for some time and its liquor license had expired, police said this week.

But the suspect, Travis Lloyd Kevie, 29, somehow got into the California establishment in the Penryn area of Sacramento Valley last week. He reopened the bar using beer he bought from a nearby store.

Kevie allegedly started with a six-pack of beer and used money he received to buy more alcohol.

He kept the bar open for a weekend serving about 30 customers a day, authorities said.

He was so successful that a local newspaper did a story about the bar reopening.

“A local newspaper report alerted a Placer County Sheriff’s Office Detective of a possible ongoing crime being committed in the Penryn area,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. “As Detective Jim Hudson read the morning newspaper he recognized an individual pictured on the front page as a local transient who has had numerous contact with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.”

A detective went to the bar to determine if Kevie had obtained a liquor license.

“When Detective Hudson arrived at the Valencia Club it was open for business with customers bellied up to the bar. Upon questioning Kevie Detective Hudson determined that he had no connection to the property and he did not have a liquor license,” the department said.

Kevie was arrested Tuesday and charged with burglary and selling liquor without a license.

A large amount of alcohol and cash was also confiscated from the bar.

The newspaper, the Auburn Journal, that ran the story about the new “bar owner”, reported that Kevie was arraigned on a single misdemeanor charge Thursday and ordered released from jail.

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My Take: No Austin divorce lawyer or Nashville divorce attorney could possibly get their paws on this case. It’s simply not in their field or jurisdiction.  It’s going to be a fun one to represent.  I can imagine his defense attorney’s arguments in this one being hard to preset without a lot of courtroom laughter.  It could be the smartest thing this guy has done in years.  Imagine what the publicity will do for him?  He’s  no dummy, and any TN criminal attorney or Austin divorce attorney can see that.

These are the kinds of homelessness-turned-hero stories that make me laugh out loud.  I once read a story about a 14-year-old homeless kid who was running a Software testing products company out of the back of a car his parents owned.  He would charge $40 for a software test on his laptop and help fix and repair computers for a donation.  He eventually was written about in the press and landed his first job at a San Francisco tech firm.

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Building Issues

Denver wrongful death attorneys can help you if a loved one has been killed at the hands of someone else’s bad behavior or illegal action, such as driving while under the influence.  What they can’t do is help you if someone has been negligent in the building of your home. That’s what Denver CO construction law lawyers are for.  These guys can assist you with information about building codes, fees, and other issues.

Democrats and the AMA have been battling for a long time about protecting doctors from malpractice lawsuits.  According to Association officials, during a private meeting at the White House they may have found one Democrat willing to entertain the idea, President Obama.  It seems that Mr. Obama believes that reducing malpractice suits may help drive down health costs and should be considered part of the overhaul of healthcare according to the lawmakers of both parties and the AMA officials.  This is been a goal of many doctors and Republicans.

It is a position that could hurt Mr. Obama with the left wing of his party and with trial lawyers who are major donors to Democratic campaigns. But one Democrat close to the president said Mr. Obama, who wants health legislation to have broad support, views addressing medical liability issues as a “credibility builder” — in effect, a bargaining chip that might keep doctors and, more important, Republicans, at the negotiating table.

Mr. Obama went to the annual medical association meeting to face a group that has come out against a central component of his broader health care proposal — his call for a new public insurance program that would compete with the private plans. The White House says he will make the case that “reform is the single most important thing we can do for America’s long-term fiscal health,” and how important it is to have the cooperation of doctors.

But whether he can get them on board is an open question. The speech comes as the president’s ideas on health reform are facing mounting criticism — not only from the A.M.A. and Republicans, who also vehemently oppose a new public plan, but also from the hospital industry, which is up in arms over a proposal Mr. Obama announced on Saturday to pay for his health care overhaul in part by cutting certain hospital reimbursements.

Medical liability is an important component of the debate, but that, too, is controversial. White House officials said Mr. Obama was likely to refer to the issue in his speech to the medical association, but would not offer any specific proposal.

Mr. Obama has not endorsed capping malpractice jury awards, as did his predecessor, President George W. Bush. But as a senator, he advanced legislation aimed at reducing malpractice suits. And Dr. J. James Rohack, the incoming president of the medical association, said Mr. Obama told him at a meeting last month that he was open to offering some liability protection to doctors who follow standard guidelines for medical practice.

“If everyone is focused on saying, ‘How do we get rid of unnecessary costs,’ ” Dr. Rohack said, recounting the conversation, “if we as physicians are going to say, ‘Here’s our guidelines, we will follow them,’ then we need to have some protections. He listened and he said, ‘Clearly, that concept is worthy of discussion.’ ”

Health care experts estimate that preventable medical errors kill more than 100,000 Americans each year, yet doctors and hospitals, fearing lawsuits, do not openly discuss their mistakes — an impediment to improving quality of care. At the same time, doctors complain that “defensive medicine” — ordering tests and procedures out of fear of being sued — drives up health costs.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats drafting health legislation have so far shown little appetite for tackling the liability issue. But one Republican who met with Mr. Obama in April recalled that the president said he was willing to go against his party to get medical malpractice reforms into a health bill — but that he would expect Republican support for the legislation if he did so.

Mr. Obama also raised the issue at a recent meeting with two dozen Senate Democrats, some who attended said.

“He’s touched on this issue at a number of meetings,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who is also a proponent of liability reform. Mr. Wyden said the president articulated “the common sense message that if doctors act in line with their own professional guidelines, that ought to create a certain presumption that they have acted reasonably.”

As a senator, Mr. Obama joined Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2005 in proposing legislation aimed at reducing both medical errors and lawsuits through a program known as Sorry Works, rooted in the idea that injured patients value an apology as much as money. Their bill encouraged doctors and hospitals to investigate errors and apologize for mistakes, to facilitate what Mr. Obama described as “a reasonable settlement that keeps the case out of court.”

Although the A.M.A.’s highest legislative priority is capping jury awards, highly unlikely under the Obama administration, it does favor legislation like that proposed by Senators Obama and Clinton. Dr. Rohack said the group’s legislative experts were also working over the weekend to draft a bill that would set out a way to protect doctors who are sued if they have followed professional practice guidelines.

“We are supportive of anything that may reduce liability,” Dr. Rohack said, adding that he was heartened by Mr. Obama’s “recognition that defensive medicine contributes to unnecessary health costs.”

But to deliver a deal with doctors, Mr. Obama would probably have to defy senior members of his party in both houses of Congress. Many Democrats oppose putting limits on medical lawsuits because they believe it is ineffective and unfair to patients.

Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is expected to outline his proposal for a health care overhaul this week, and aides said liability protection for doctors is not part of the plan.

For those who are considering a lawsuit . . . A tragic injury can change your life and your family’s life difficult.  Your New York City car accidents lawyer should be dedicated to helping you recover the money you deserve to compensate you for your loss.  There approach, unlike larger firms, should be to be intimately familiar with your case.  Their firm should be a size that permits them to deliver high quality, detail-oriented legal services to their clients. This philosophy should resulted in an impressive record of maximizing recoveries for their clients.  Even if you need an NYC elder care attorney, they should be dedicated and detail orientated in their legal services to you.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, resisted medical malpractice legislation when it was pushed by Republicans in the past. “The whole premise of a medical malpractice ‘crisis’ is unfounded,” Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor in 2006, in a speech that quoted extensively from a book titled “The Medical Malpractice Myth.”

And any effort to restrict patients’ legal rights to sue will face tough opposition from the American Association for Justice, which represents trial lawyers and has met with Nancy-Ann DeParle, Mr. Obama’s point person for health reform, to express its concerns. Linda Lipsen, the association’s chief lobbyist, said practice guidelines were established by unregulated medical societies and “should not be conclusive” in a court of law.

The association may have an ally in Mr. Obama’s health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who is a former director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. But Mr. Obama’s first choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, who advised the president throughout the campaign, was a strong proponent of linking evidence-based medicine with protections against lawsuits.  And another top health adviser to Mr. Obama, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, has written extensively on liability reform.

“There is no doubt that comprehensive health care reform requires a monumental change to the current malpractice system, which not only hurts both doctors and patients, but also is far too expensive,” Dr. Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, wrote in a 2008 book, “Healthcare Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America.”

In March, Mr. Obama spoke to a group of chief executives and stated that malpractice law changes need to be part of the health care debate, he also conceded that it would not be an easy sale.  This is an indication that the solution may not be all that simple.

“Medical liability issues — I think all those things have to be on the table,” Mr. Obama said. “And I won’t lie to you that everybody agrees on this theoretically until you start getting into the specifics.”

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My Take: I believe they definitely need to do something about malpractice lawsuits against doctors.  Very few doctors do not have malpractice insurance.  Those that do have to charge more for their services, which means fewer patients.  This in turn, means that less people can get medical attention because they cannot afford.

There are many people who will suit a doctor over something trivial and they will win.  That means the malpractice insurance premium the doctor pays goes up and his fee goes up.  Many people do not realize that many doctors are in debt when they start their practice.  It takes thousands of dollars in school loans to get the education they need to become a doctor.  That means their fees are high to begin with and then they have to get malpractice insurance that costs an arm and a leg.

I can understand putting a cap on what someone can get in and malpractice suit.  There are so many things that need to be considered in doing that like what were the reasons that started the malpractice suit.  Is the patient alive?  Can the patient still work?  If a patient is still alive and is still able to work, they should not get as much as someone who sues because a family member is dead or the patient is permanently disabled.

There are even some people who believe that if a doctor caused a patient’s death because of a medical error, that the doctor should face criminal charges.  Maybe this is one of the options in this big discussion.  A doctor needs to trust the patient to do their job.  This is why many doctors and hospitals do not say anything when they discover a medical error.  They do their best to correct that error if at all possible.  However, sometimes that error cannot be corrected and this is the main issue in a malpractice suit.

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One crime has proven to be quite costly in terms of dollars and reputation as well as become more prevalent in recent years, medical identity theft! It has become a leading issue with providers from every aspect of the medical industry. All facilities need to be vigilant and be able to recognize and prevent identity breaches of any kind as well as to know how to respond to such a breach if it occurs.

The AHIMA’s director of practice leadership, Harry B. Rhodes, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, CPHIMS, FAHIMA, participated in a town hall meeting hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) of Health Information Technology and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that discussed medical identity theft, its prevalence, and solutions for detection and prevention.

Rhodes notes that previously, regulatory organizations hadn’t put much effort into tracking the incidence of medical identity theft. Information from the town hall meeting, however, suggests that one in 23 identity theft victims is a victim of medical identity theft. Nevertheless, the FTC reports that it received only 19,482 medical identity theft complaints between 1992 and 2006.

“Most people don’t think to call the FTC to file a complaint,” says Rhodes. In 2005, it is estimated that 3% of the 83 million reported identity theft victims were for medical identity theft. “It’s the fastest growing crime out there. A good deal of the drug-related crime is switching to medical identity theft,” says Rhodes.

Barry Johnson, president of HealthCare Insight, a surveillance services company, cites statistics that indicate the number of cases rose from 250,000 in 2005 to 363,000 in 2007. “There is no question it is an increasing problem because more information is accessible to more people than ever before,” he says.

Types of Offenders

Rhodes identifies four types of medical identity theft: one-off, insider, organized crime, and drug-seeking behavior. One-off theft usually involves a person who allows a relative or friend to use their insurance card. It can also entail an out-and-out theft of the card or the selling or renting of the card. Rhodes cites an incident in which a Mexican man who spoke little English presented to a facility as John O’Malley, a strong indicator that the ID card was borrowed. “Often, people don’t report the one-off theft because of sympathy they have for the patient forced to go to extremes to obtain healthcare. But there is starting to be a change of attitude about this,” he says.

Insider theft occurs when a hospital employee is approached by outsiders to steal health insurance information. Criminals frequently target staff who may be in a situation where they need money quickly, such as to pay off a gambling debt. If desperate enough, employees will provide the medical identities in return for cash.

According to the FTC, a Social Security card is worth $1 on the street, while stolen medical ID cards will fetch between $25 and $50 per identity. “They are worth more because it is so much easier to steal your medical identity information and submit a false claim against your insurance coverage,” Rhodes says. “The average insurance card is usually very plain with only your name on it—no photo, no computer chip like credit cards have—so it is much easier to steal and submit a false claim compared to credit card theft.”

The economic benefits are more lucrative as well. “Credit card limits are usually $20,000 or much less nowadays. But the lifetime benefits on insurance are in the millions of dollars. Victims of medical identity theft often realize that their medical identity has been stolen when they are denied benefits because they’ve reached their limit,” Rhodes says.

Organized crime has become more prominent in medical identity theft scams. In one case, a crime ring trained young girls as receptionists and taught them how to look for the right patients to target. Those who are senile, with dementia, and without guardianship make ideal pawns. Once a victim’s identity is taken, the criminals submit insurance claims—usually for less than $10,000, an amount that stays under the Internal Revenue Services’ radar. “These individuals are constantly on the move and stay at a clinic for only about 90 days to avoid getting caught,” says Rhodes.

The Justice Department and Health and Human Services recently broke up a medical identity theft ring in Miami that set up false providers or paid individuals a fee to set up a false business from which the criminals would submit fake claims.

Thieves are also motivated to steal insurance cards by the prospect of procuring narcotics that can be turned into cash on the street. One side effect of such operations is that many of the victims are falsely arrested when they later use their insurance card for legitimate purposes. “Once criminals get the information, they keep selling it again and again and again,” says Rhodes.

The Damage Done

The cost of medical identity theft to healthcare organizations exists on many levels. Financially, healthcare fraud costs between $70 billion and $255 billion per year, which is between 3% and 10% of total U.S. healthcare spending. Even so, Johnson believes those figures understate the problem.

Rhodes says medical identity theft also creates new overhead to fight false claims. “Financially and in terms of time, the FTC says that it takes five to 20 hours to clean up records after every incident, at a cost of $182 per record,” he says.

In addition, healthcare facilities have begun to hire medical identity theft experts. Many are creating positions known as data integrity specialists, who not only work to ensure data integrity by correcting errant information in the electronic health record but also monitor for signs of medical identity theft.

Negative customer relations are also a by-product of medical identity theft. Consumers set a high standard for healthcare providers and do not expect that their information and identities will be compromised.

Clues to Misuse

To prevent and detect medical identity theft, it is important for healthcare entities to conduct risk assessments. “This is an important preliminary step that came up consistently in the medical identify theft research and town hall facilitated by ONC,” says Jodi Daniel, director of the Office of Policy and Research within the ONC. “Each entity may have a different approach to successfully mitigate this risk, but it would likely include administrative policies, technical capabilities, and physical safeguards and techniques.”

Rhodes says there are many precautions providers can take, including having an organized plan for addressing medical identity theft. Plus, they must stay alert for clues from other sources. “They have to be open to the consumer who has a question about a bill and [have] a process to make it easy for the consumer to come to you with a possible breach,” he says.

Rhodes also recommends that providers be on the lookout for records, known as overlays, that are inconsistent with patient history. Also be wary of the patient who knows his insurance number without a card.

Rhodes notes the example of one facility, in trying to be diligent with protecting identifications, that used a digital scanner to scan drivers’ licenses and ID cards. However, it didn’t place the proper security controls on the scanner, and a thief was able to abscond with its contents.

Unusual billing patterns are another indication of medical identity theft. “Coders keep good track of DRGs [diagnosis-related groups], but if they start to see an unusually huge amount of cases, they should question it,” says Rhodes. The key is to move quickly to investigate because thieves don’t often linger for more than 90 days.

Preventive Measures

Medical identity theft is a privacy and security issue and, in responding to breaches, Rhodes speaks of “closing the loop” to help stem the problem. This process involves encrypting files, performing file audits, and even employing measures such as fingerprint scanning for properly identifying patients.

“Start by doing a risk assessment to ensure that you know what you have in your system,” says Rhodes, echoing Daniel’s advice. In case of a breach, he recommends having triggers in place, including a security response team.

Implementing fingerprint scanning, which has become more popular as the price of the technology has decreased, and palm vein scanning are other identity theft deterrents. Rhodes points out, however, that facilities must still be vigilant to protect those databases, or the technology is useless.

Access management—who has access to what information—is another key component to thwarting would-be thieves. When an employee is fired, authorizations are typically immediately cancelled. However, Rhodes cautions facilities to be certain to also discontinue passwords and authorizations when employees voluntarily quit. In these situations, IT is not always informed on a timely basis.

Separation of duties for the personnel who submit and receive claims and deposit the checks is also a useful safeguard. In addition, background checks on employees should be done at regular intervals throughout their career with a facility because personal situations often change during the course of employment.

As part of being dedicated to helping healthcare payers (eg, insurance companies, third-party administrators, health plans) identify false claims, Johnson says organizations should be vigilant of claims that make no sense for the age and medical history of a patient. “There is far more identity sharing than we care to believe,” he says, especially among Medicaid recipients.

Johnson recommends that providers follow several commonsense principles to help alleviate the incidence of medical identity theft. First and foremost, when providing care, be certain to always ask for the patient’s ID card and compare it with a photo ID. He also advises payers to take more aggressive steps, such as performing background checks on data handlers, storing the identification of the patient as part of an electronic health record, not using healthcare information that identifies a patient in any way that is unnecessary, and destroying paper and electronic medical records properly.

From a technology standpoint, Johnson says there are multiple safeguards that healthcare organizations must use, as mandated by HIPAA. “Be sure to change passwords every 30 days and limit employees’ rights and access to a patient’s personal health information,” he says. “All payers are required to have these safeguards in place, which should limit the exposure of personal health information.”

Technology plays an important role in maintaining security. “We believe that increased use of information technology in the healthcare sector can increase the ability to prevent medical identity theft through stronger security and to detect medical identity theft by helping the entity to recognize unusual activity, such as inconsistencies in healthcare services requested and delivered,” Daniel says. She adds that it is also important to realize that breaches may occur from “insiders” who have access to the information. Policies and technologies that limit access based on role can lessen this type of risk.

Reporting a Breach

If a breach occurs, how should a facility respond? First, identify and stop the source, says Rhodes. At this point, it’s imperative to shut down the offender’s use of the identity.

Next, gather evidence regarding the breach. Forty-four states have breach reporting laws; however, there is often anxiety about reporting a breach. “If you don’t know what you’re protecting—because you haven’t done a proper risk assessment—then you won’t know what’s been stolen,” Rhodes explains. “You could lose credibility if you don’t have a good process in place, didn’t do a proper inventory, and can’t be certain that a breach occurred.”

Wording in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act states that you must “respond to a breach in 60 days.” “The clock starts ticking the minute you discover there is a breach,” Rhodes says. “Without a clear process in place and a clear way to do an investigation, it’s difficult to accomplish in 60 days. Also, if more than 500 individuals’ identities are compromised, you must send a notice to HHS, so you better not be wrong.”

After every breach, facilities must perform a security response evaluation and take steps to improve security practices. “So many will say, ‘What are the odds of this happening to our facility?’ and I tell them, ‘When it’s happening to you, it’s 100% happening to you,’” says Rhodes.

If HealthCare Insight discovers personal health information has been compromised or a breach has occurred, the payer must be notified and, in turn, the payer must notify the federal government. “Now, there is also a requirement that the patient whose information was stolen be notified. Previously, the patient had to ask, but the law has recently changed,” says Johnson.

At the town hall meeting, Rhodes was surprised to learn how hard criminals work to steal information and submit false claims. “They are looking for a weakness in an organization. If criminals identify a weakness, they will come back and try again,” he warns.

According to Daniel, healthcare organizations must meet the challenge with the same enthusiasm that criminals pursue their criminal goals. “The best way to manage this risk is to prevent a breach from occurring and to have policies in place in advance, such as an incident response plan, so as to quickly be able to respond in the event of a breach,” she says. This will enable a healthcare facility to contact the proper authorities and the patients so that they can assist in resolving the problem.

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My Take: I do not worry about identity theft, at least not the kind where your credit is concerned because I do not have enough credit for a thief to worry about. However, I think I will start worrying about it now. Although, I am on Medicare and I am not sure that any thieves would steal my information because it is so hard to get anything done on Medicare.

To be honest, I would rather worry about finding collectible funny alcohol signs than fret over my medical identity. Many health insurances nowadays actually keep track of what your conditions and prescriptions are, similar to the way many credit cards keep track of your spending history. Many times that I have used my credit card on something I usually do not use it on and the credit card company calls to find out if I actually did use it. I do not see why an insurance company cannot do the same thing for medical purposes.

Hunting down wooden airplane propellers, would be harder than protecting against medical identity theft anyway. That is, if the doctor’s offices and hospitals had the right protection in place. We would not have to worry about it. This type of thing adds one more stress on people that have bad health and really do not need.

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Other Resources

Everyday Security Systems in Use

Security systems are in use at airports, government and corporate buildings, correctional and prison facilities, postal facilities, military zones, sea ports and border crossings. The technologies utilized in the systems range from X-ray and Gamma-ray imaging to advanced threat identification techniques such as neutron and diffraction analysis. International governments and security agencies design and deploy customized solutions for securing a facility using walk through metal detector devices, baggage and parcel inspection systems and metal detector, to automated explosive detection systems, airplane cargo screening solutions and container inspection systems, airplane cargo handling.