Dave Savini reports on two cases that sound like medical identity theft. Here’s the first one:
Lisa Voss of Chicago tells 2 Investigator Dave Savini [she was] billed more than $1,300 by Stroger Hospital. She believes there are likely more victims.
According to medical records with her name on them, Voss was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Voss says she also was told she spent three days medicated and restrained at the county run hospital in May 2014, after police found her wandering the streets vandalizing cars.
However, Voss says none of this happened to her and she was being billed for someone else hospitalized under her name.
Read more on CBS. Luckily for the two cases described in the story, the news station got involved. But people shouldn’t have to go through what these individuals went through.
Think about the non-financial consequences of this type of ID theft/fraud, too. Could security clearances or jobs be lost if you have wildly inaccurate info in your records? Sure.
Could your healthcare be impacted if your report on your symptoms is dismissed by hospital personnel who erroneously believe you’re severely mentally ill? Sure.
I’m glad to read that Stroger is re-educating employees and has apologized to Ms Voss, but there needs to be prompter and better procedures for when someone reports medical ID theft.