Theft of medical information becoming more common, USA Today reports

Hospitals and other medical settings are becoming a "hunting ground for identity thieves" who "use medical information to get credit card numbers, drain bank accounts or falsely bill Medicare and other insurers," according to some experts, USA Today reports.

Identity thieves often find stealing medical identities more profitable than the typical bank account and credit card information because fake medical billing can result in "hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars," Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said.

Consumers are usually unaware of medical identity theft until creditors contact them for payment. Some patients might not know their medical information had been accessed at all.

According to a recent survey by HIMSS Analytics and Kroll Fraud Solutions of 263 health care providers, 13% said their medical records had been inappropriately accessed and 56% of those said they alerted the patient of the breach. Several states are considering legislation that would make notification mandatory.

Stuart Gerson, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who represents health care firms, said that while health care facilities often take protective measures to ensure patient privacy, such as encrypting data, "people are acting with increasing sophistication to steal information" (Appleby, USA Today, 5/7).