Medical Identity Theft On Elderly Victims

The crime of medical identity theft is a growing concern in the health care industry. Recently, the World Privacy Forum issued a report on medical identity theft, noting that it was the least studied and the worst documented of all identity theft crimes. There has been much speculation as to why medical identity theft is considered a dangerous crime, even though it is the most unrecognizable of all identity theft crimes. Unfortunately, there are not as many laws and regulations addressing medical identity theft as financial identity theft. However, in 2012, the Ponemon Institute conducted a study on the number of individuals who experienced medical identity theft. The study was one of the first national studies that focused on medical identity theft in the United States. The purpose of the study was to get an understanding of how medical identity theft has affected the victims and how medical identity theft differs from identity theft. The primary goal of medical identity theft was to obtain medical goods or services through a combination of identity theft and health care fraud. In order for medical identity theft to occur, the victims must have both their financial and medical information compromised. Research shows that the elderly are the primary victims of medical identity theft. The reason is that they receive Medicare and Medicaid. The purpose of this research is to examine why a growing and serious crime such as medical identity theft has not received the same degree of national media coverage as financial identity theft and why there are few resources offered for its victims, particularly the elderly. In addition, this paper will explore how the government can resolve this issue with the current laws and regulations. Unfortunately, further research is needed to enable the government to take responsibility and to raise public awareness about medical identity theft. Keywords: Economic Crime Management, Professor Suzanne Lynch, medical records, protected health information, financial information, data breach, privacy, and security.