Case Study: Preventing Medical Identity Theft

Medical identity theft is also a very dangerous issue. This type of theft can expose a person's sensitive personal information which can then be used by fraudsters to get medical treatments, benefits, prescription drugs and generally defraud the medical system. The victims, whose medical records have may have been altered through the fraud, may ultimately receive incorrect medical treatment. If the victims learn their records have been altered during their own personal medical emergency, these errors could lead to incorrect diagnoses to even death.

Khaled El Emam, a University of Ottawa professor and the Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information, reports that there is no clear understanding of the real scope of this problem because so few cases of medical identity fraud ever make it to the courts. In the US, said Mr. El Emam, where the for-profit health-care system creates incentives for hospitals and insurance companies to root out identity theft, an estimated 15 per cent of claims are considered fraudulent.