Medical Identity Theft

Medical identity theft is often overlooked on
television and newspapers but is growing extremely
rapidly. People are unable to get medical coverage
easily and desperate times can drive many people to
take very desperate measures.

Unless you have a medical condition, you could keep
your insurance card in your wallet or purse and rarely
ever use it. You might not even notice if it happened
to disappear.

When medical identity theft occurs, you may never even
know it happened until it's way too late. The
complications it can cause can threaten the life of
you or your loved ones.

Blood types can be changed, diagnoses you never
actually got can be put into your records and much
more very scary things could happen.

Imagine getting into an accident and losing a lot of
blood not realizing an identity theft had occurred and
now your records show your blood type as A instead of
B.

If you get a pint of the wrong type, serious problems
or death may occur. You also may end up with extremely
high medical bills. If someone bills your insurance
for a broken leg, you may be responsible for much of
the bill.

Repairing medical identity theft errors can be a very
long and complicated process. If someone got treatment
somewhere, that information may be shared all around
the country.

Even if you change it, it could take a very long time
to correct everywhere and that puts you at great risk
in case of an accident.

To prevent all of this, keep detailed records of your
medical bills and insurance statements.