Jennifer Portman reports on yet another refund fraud ring involving a hospital employee as the source of personal information:
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare officials modified policies to help better protect the privacy of patients’ personal information and offered identity protection services to more than 100 patients after learning last year that a hospital employee was suspected in a federal tax fraud scheme.
Spencer Larry Parson, 25, of Tallahassee, was indicted in U.S. District Court this week along with two Tampa residents on 31 counts of filing false tax returns, wire fraud, false claims and aggravated identity theft. The conspiracy included fraudulent claims totaling about $818,000.
Parson, who worked as a food service worker for TMH for three years, is accused of obtaining patient names and dates of birth from food tray receipts he delivered to their rooms in August 2011. Later, the indictment said, Parson used without permission his manager’s log-in to access the hospital’s computer system and get the patients’ Social Security numbers. He also stole patient information from emergency room data sheets culled from the trash, investigators found.
Read more on Tallahassee.com.