Tips To Help You Prevent Medical Identity Theft

In our previous two articles on the subject of medical identity theft, we discussed what medical identify theft is, how prevalent the crime has become, and what criminals can do with your medical identity once they have access to it. In this article, we will focus on tips that can help prevent you from becoming a victim of medical identity theft, and in our next article we will outline the steps that you should take if your medical identity has been compromised. Medical identity theft is a crime that has proven to be very difficult to stop so being knowledgeable about and educated on the topic will ensure that you are ready to handle the problem if it does arise for you.

Steps That You Can Take To Protect Yourself From Medical Identity Theft

Medical identity theft can be extremely detrimental to your finances, sense of your security, and most importantly, your health. Being aware of what is going on with your health and your medical records is one of the best ways to make sure that your medical identity remains secure. Use the following tips to help protect yourself:

• Be sure to consistently monitor and manage your personal medical records. After you receive treatments from your doctors and other healthcare providers, make sure that your records have been properly updated. If you notice any errors, contact your provider immediately and attempt to clear up the issues.
•  Read through the all explanation of benefits that you receive from your health insurance provider and make sure that the information matches up with the information in your medical records.
• Make sure to collect an annual summary of all benefits paid from your insurance provider.
• Contact your health insurance provider if you receive any charges for treatment or care that you never received.
• Store all of your health insurance information including your explanation of benefits, annual statements, insurance cards, and health plan correspondence in a safe and secure location. If these documents are stolen or lost it is incredibly easy for criminals to steal your medical identity.
• Never share any of your health care or health insurance information with anyone other than trusted, credible healthcare providers.
• Pay attention to your credit card statements and look out for any fraudulent charges. Your medical identity typically contains your credit card information so any credit card fraud could be the result of medical identity theft.
• Do not trust or receive medical treatments from free clinics unless you have done your research and due diligence on the organization providing the services. Some of these clinics provide free services in order to gain access to valuable health care and insurance information that they can use for fraudulent purposes.
• Never list your social security number or your driver’s license number unless you are absolutely required to do so. Many times, healthcare facilities will ask for these items when filling out your basic information, but they often don’t actually need this information. Find out if it is necessary before listing it to help better protect yourself.

By taking all of these steps, you will ensure that you are on top of your healthcare information and records and you will be able to quickly spot any suspicious activity involving any aspect of your medical identity.

Start Monitoring Your Records Today

Your medical identity contains crucial health care information and important personal data that simply should not be in the hands of unauthorized individuals. In order to protect your medical identity, it is imperative that you consistently monitor your medical records and you cannot do this without access to these records. Most people often wait until it is too late to begin monitoring their medical records and have to deal with the unfortunate consequences. Avoid all the stress and problems that come with medical identity theft by letting Order Medical Records help you gain access to your records today. We have years of experience with the retrieval of medical records and our secure practices will ensure that you get all the information you need to be protected.

In our final article on medical identity theft, we will detail the steps you need to take if you suspect that your medical identity has been compromised.