Government Technology - February 2008 - (Page 27)

ICINE BY JIM McKAY | JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY EDITOR A TREND EMBRACED BY WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINALS IS DRIVING UP HEALTH-CARE COSTS AND CREATING NIGHTMARES FOR ITS VICTIMS. Medical identity theft is health-care fraud and ID theft rolled into one, and it’s a crime that’s expected to continue growing because it’s easy to carry out and difﬁcult to detect. The ﬁrst study on the subject, done by the World Privacy Forum (WPF) in 2006, estimates that medical identity theft accounts for 2.7 percent to 3.2 percent of total ID theft, which is reported to be the fastest-growing crime over the last seven years. In November 2007, the Federal Trade Commission estimated the number of medical identity theft cases at 3 percent of all ID theft cases. That’s at least 250,000 medical identity theft cases per year. Medical identity theft takes two forms: physician identiﬁcation numbers that are stolen and used to bill for services, and patient identiﬁcation information stolen and used to obtain services or bill for services. The latter scenario is especially damaging to the victims who inadvertently could be treated based on someone else’s medical history and who might, as a result, have a difﬁcult time rebuilding their medical ﬁles. There are fewer resources for victims of medical identity theft than for regular ID theft, and victims get little help from laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “First, we know the unique physician identiﬁcation numbers (UPIN) that are used to bill both private insurance and Medicare/Medicaid are frequently compromised, and we see that in our enforcement efforts,” said Kirk Ogrosky, deputy chief of the fraud section for the U.S. Department of Justice. “There’s a second part of that, and that’s compromised patient information, which would be the Medicare number. That Medicare number goes across different federal programs and private insurance. We see identity theft in both areas, and it’s prevalent.” Expensive Problem At least 3 percent of U.S. health-care costs (about $60 billion) can be attributed to fraud, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. Of that, 1 percent is attributed to medical ID theft — an ominous ﬁgure when the numbers are triangulated, according to Sharon Ormsby, section chief for the ﬁnancial crimes section of the FBI. “If you ﬁgure by 2012, national health-care expenditure costs for the country will be approximately $3 trillion, you look at the fact that the 27 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - February 2008

Government Technology - February 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Screen Products Four Questions for... CSI Effect Bad Medicine Making Health Care Personal Cashing In GIS for Less Nabbing Speedsters First Person: Records Management Chatter Box Oregon Data Centers Go Green Products Two Cents Spectrum Up Close Personal Computing signal:noise Government Solutions - Spring 2008 Power Play Double Duty Cleaning House Twice Prepared Smart Move The Path to Success Foundation for Service

Government Technology - February 2008

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