Posted on 04/19/2015 8:59:42 AM PDT by lowbridge
Nearly everyone knows the dangers of identity theft, where someone steals your credit cards, bank information, or Social Security number to rip you off. But a new kind of crime is rising that could put you in even greater danger.
It’s medical identity theft, and it’s on the rise in the U.S. According to report this month by the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance, which tracks such crimes, 2.3 million Americans were victimized by medical ID thieves in 2014 — with total damages adding up to $20 billion.
That represents a 22 percent increase in the number of cases in just one year. MIFA also noted one-fifth of the victims suffered a decrease in their credit score, a third lost their health insurance, and the average cost to resolve those crimes cost consumers $13,500.
Twila Brase, president of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom — a Minnesota-based organization dedicated to protecting patient privacy rights — tells Newsmax TV medical ID theft is a growing national problem.
One factor fueling the rise in medical ID theft: Healthcare reform changes pushed, in part, by Obamacare requiring doctors and healthcare providers to covert paper medical records to digital files that can be more easily stolen and used to file fraudulent health claims with insurers, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The eventual goal is to create a National Medical Records System to track and analyze patient data — an initiative she argues puts consumers at risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Obamacare going as planed illegals applaud the king.
Why no 4th Amendment challenge to Obamacare yet?
..AND a half million ILLEGALS get social security cards last week.
It is all about BUYING votes with taxpayer dollars. Nothing has changed. I don’t think Boss Tweed ever really died.
The government’s push to computerize medical records has done wonders.
We had our taxes filed fraudulently this year. We are now working our way through that mess.
I wasn't until the Obama Administration mandated electronic medical record keeping.
And it would not be happening IF NOT FOR Obamacare.
Is the greater danger theft by the hacker? Or is it legal access by the IRS type agencies?
Jones is on SSI claiming a certain disability. Can government agencies (any and all of them) look at his medical records to see how they match his SSI claim?
Smith claims medical deductions on his income tax. Can the agencies look at his medical records?
Riveras claims religious objection to immunization of their kids in school, including STD prevention of their 13 year old girl. Can the agencies look at their medical records?
What about HIE/HIX ? Who can legally access Health Information Exchange data?
Does the CMS (Center for Medicaid & Medicare) tie funding to a certain technical architecture that was a fad 10 years ago? How can the CMS use the slow bureaucratic process of writing technical mandates into a technical architecture that is constantly changing ...and expect to be taken seriously?
The big Obamacare benefit is not to the poor. It is to the big Health industry executives (IT, insurance and hospital) so as to buy their political support. How can the bureaucratic regulations possibly benefit the poor, the sick, the public when they are controlled by the quid-pro-quo (pay to play in IL) between those with a political agenda and those with a self-interest in government sweetheart deals?
Anyone think Lifelock would be worth it? Anyone used it?
For all of my adult life, I have spent 6 months dreading tax season and then 6 months worrying if maybe I had done something wrong when filing them.
For the first time in my adult life (my husband and I have been married for 30 years), we actually hired a tax preparer, as we believed that a citizen should NOT have to pay someone else to do their taxes - filing/completing a tax form should not be that difficult for ANY citizen.
When our tax preparer submitted our taxes this year, they were REJECTED - because someone had already filed with OUR SSNs.
SAME for one of our sons!!!
We had to mail in the forms and check WITH COPIES of driver’s license AND social security card.
I was informed by one person that it will probably take at least 6 months to straighten out... (I hope those who committed this fraud actually HAVE TO PAY what we owe ‘cause it is a huge amount.)
You do not even want to know what my thoughts are...
And... the ONLY entity or website, to my knowledge, that possibly has access to ALL of this confidential information combined, other than the IRS, is PEEHIP and/or the so-called “Team-Up for Health” website.
I have been “coerced” into a relationship with which I do not agree - with this so-called “Active Health” management and my employer-sponsored health care provider.
I find it absolutely APPALLING that in order to complete a REQUIRED PEEHIP health questionnaire on-line, one must agree to/abide by the laws of New York, even though we are citizens of Alabama.
I have believed for close to 20 years that the 16th amendment was never properly ratified and that the IRS and all the shenanigans we citizens go through every year is ILLEGAL.
Good luck to you!
http://www.newsmax.com/Health/Health-News/medical-ID-theft-rising/2015/04/17/id/639184/
We owe too but the fraudulent filer somehow got an $8K refund. They sent us a notice saying we would be audited because our taxes differed from our usual report so significantly.
I guarantee they will never be caught much less see a day in prison. I would go so far as to say this is probably some inside job to funnel money to protected voter groups in some sort of IRS based scam to buy votes.
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