Posted on 07/15/2009 7:55:18 PM PDT by LouAvul
My wife received a letter from her doctor that the doctor had hired someone who used a stolen social security number.
The doctor said the employee had stolen cash and was subsequently fired. She also gave the number of a detective on the case.
According to the doc, the employee also had access to "sensitive information" on the doc, the doc's employees and the patients.
Any advice as to what we should do?
thanx
Check your credit card account daily. Check your credit file weekly.
1. Pull your credit report
2. Sign up for a credit monitoring service
3. The doctor has liability here if that person got your information and used it. he did what he was supposed to by telling you. Every day this happens and it gets covered up.
Get a credit report.
Check your credit report regularly.
Contact your family lawyer as there may be “tax related” issues with someone obtaining a job using your SSN with income that the IRS may come a knocking asking why you didn’t declare the income from your job as a waitress at some seedy diner.
Find a new doctor.
Your doctor should have had this person arrested, not just fired.
The State of Ohio lost a computer with my SS info (and who knows what else) a few years ago. They made it up by giving me a complimentary one year membership to a credit protection service!
I don’t know the exact details, but I think you can put a “lock” on your credit so that any new accounts cannot be opened without getting your personal approval. People who steal your personal information will often go to some store and apply for new credit with your personal information. With your existing accounts, you are normally pretty well protected against unauthorized charges.
You shouldn’t go to that doctor anymore. Any person who hires that potential liability without a background search is incompetent in other areas, too. Rescue your medical records from this doc and find a new doctor.
The USDA did the same for us.
Apparently, you missed the part about a detective assigned to the case.
Don’t give your SS# to health care providers. If the office staff balks, tell them to make up a number for their records.
Nope. I saw it. I saw nothing about an arrest or charges.
The info didn’t include the names and home addresses of the offender, physician or the patients either. Using your logic, they don’t have names or homes.
If the doctor doesn’t know the name of the perp/employee....would you feel safe visiting the doctor??
I work at a dental office. Most insurance companies still require a Social Security number in order to process claims. If the person refuses to supply a SS#, we tell them to file their own claims. When we tell them that, they usually supply the SS#.
Once again, you are using faulty logic. You do not have enough information to know whether the perp employee used their legal name or not. You do not know whether the patients used their legal name either. As a result, you are making faulty assumptions.
Nobody has a right to use your social security number for any reason other than income tax. Of course, it can make life difficult for all the industries that continue to require it (e.g. credit agencies, insurance, etc.). Heck, I remember when Holiday Inn used to use SS# as their Priority Club ID. Nuts!
Well, if that’s your idea of a responsible MD, good luck to you.
I wouldn’t employ a shoddy health care professional, much like I didn’t hire illegal aliens to roof my homes last summer.
Get LifeLock. Now.
I subscribe my entire family to LifeLock, as well as a second “identity theft” prevention service. Just gives peace of mind, and the price isn’t too high.
I’d be happy to give you my SSN if you want it. Of course, if you use it, I’ll know. ;-)
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