Types of Identity Fraud

Medical Identity Theft

About This Study
  • Published on April 30, 2010
  • Independently conducted by Ponemon Institute
  • Sponsored by ProtectMyID™ and Experian®

The National Study on Medical Identity Theft was conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by ProtectMyID.com, an Experian company. The purpose of this research is to rigorously determine how pervasive medical identity theft is in the United States and how it has affected American consumers.

We believe this is an important study because in this and previous Ponemon Institute research, consumers have said the protection of their personal information, especially their health records is very important.1 In fact, 55 percent of consumers responding to our study strongly agree and agree that the medical identity theft caused them to lose trust and confidence in health care organizations.

Medical identity theft occurs when someone uses a person’s name and sometimes other parts of their identity—such as insurance information—to obtain medical services or goods. Criminals also can use the identity of another to make false claims for medical services or goods. It is a growing problem. In fact, an estimated nearly 1.5 million Americans are affected by it.

More than 716 consumers in our study say they or an immediate family member have been a victim of medical identity theft. Seventy-four percent say that the effort to resolve the crime and restore their identity was very significant or significant. The extrapolated total cost to resolve the medical identity theft incident was more than $20,000. >Download the full study

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