Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer reports:
Both patients and information technology systems should play a role in detecting and reducing medical identity theft, but the federal government has a part to play as well, researching and organizing a national response to the problem, authors of a government-funded study have concluded.
National security and defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton released the report last week, the third phase in a $450,000 study funded by the Office of the National Coordinator at HHS to “improve its understanding of the issue and the role health information technology may play.â€
The final phase is the 26-page Booz Allen report. It contains recommendations for a national policy on medical identity theft, which the report defines as the misuse, with or without their knowledge, of one person’s personal information, such as the name, date of birth, Social Security number and insurance policy number to obtain or bill for medical goods or services.
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