I’ve previously noted that I’m a bit stumped as to what we do in cases where people knowingly allow others to use their information to obtain medical services. The Ponemon studies view them as medical ID theft victims, and they certainly might suffer down the road if their own medical records are corrupted by misinformation, but I’ve argued that they should likely be viewed as co-conspirators in a crime and not included in our numbers of medical ID theft victims. Excluding them from analyses reportedly does not change any significant patterns, but would lower the overall number of cases by about one third.
So far, though, law enforcement does not generally seem to charge people who provide or sell others their insurance or Medicare numbers for fraudulent purchases. Given that the real victims are the hospitals, providers, or taxpayers when there’s massive Medicare/Medicaid fraud, maybe law enforcement should start cracking down more on these folks.
Here’s a case in Connecticut to ponder. Should the woman who sold/provided her insurance information to the defendant be charged criminally?