Medical identity theft can be a jarring experience. It can negatively affect your medical records, health insurance, and finances.
Outlined below are steps you can take to avoid and respond to medical identity theft.
Steps to protect yourself from medical identity theft:
- Be careful about who you give your personal information to. This includes your Medicare number, Social Security number, credit card numbers, and driver’s license number.
- Beware of unexpected texts, calls, or emails. A scammer may try to get you to click on a link or respond with your personal information. Remember that Medicare and Social Security will never reach out to you to ask for your personal information.
- Keep documents that contain your medical information somewhere safe. This includes your health insurance card, insurance enrollment forms, prescription bottles, and billing statements. If you want to get rid of these things, use a shredder or wait for a local shred day. Before throwing out prescriptions, use a marker to cross out any personal information on the bottle.
- Look out for common fraud schemes used to steal personal information. These include scams related to free COVID-19 tests, durable medical equipment that you didn’t ask for, genetic testing or cancer screening kits, new Medicare card scams, and telehealth fraud.
If you believe someone has managed to steal and use your medical information, look out for the following signs:
- Charges on your health insurance statements for services, equipment, or medications you didn’t receive. This would include Medicare Summary Notices and Explanation of Benefits from Medicare Advantage plans.
- Shipment of braces, testing kits, or other medical supplies in the mail that you didn’t request.
- Outreach by a debt collection company for a provider bill you don’t owe.
- Medical debt collection that you don’t recognize.
If you believe someone has stolen and is using your medical information, contact Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP):
They can help guide you through what you need to do if you think your medical information has been stolen. Along with reporting any incidents to the authorities, they may encourage you to:
- Review your health insurance statements. Look for any services, items, or prescriptions you didn’t receive or any providers you don’t recognize.
- Get copies of medical records. Explain the situation to your health care providers and request that they send you your records.
- Report errors. Report any mistakes you find in your medical records to your health care provider.
- Review your credit reports.
- Visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com or call 877-322-8228 to get your free credit report. Look for medical billing errors. This includes medical debt collection notices that you don’t recognize.
And finally, make a recovery plan.
Use the Federal Trade Commission’s www.IdentityTheft.org to report identity theft and get a recovery plan.
Source: North Central Texas Area Agency on Aging
We hope this information is helpful to you in the important work you do as a family caregiver.
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