As the theft of health information continues to rise, so, too, will the impact it has on the lives of patients who no longer have control over their personal health information.
An article in the Wall Street Journal examines several individual instances of medical identity theft and the resulting fallout on those affected.
One such victim, Kathleen Meiners of Kansas City, began receiving hospital bills last year from Centerpoint Medical Center in Missouri for treatment of a leg injury her son Billy never suffered.
Meiners fought for months to stop the collection notices and fix her son's medical records, according to the article. But after the grueling and time-consuming process of clearing up the confusion, Meiners never found out how the theft of her son's identification occurred.
"It floors me what happened," she told WSJ.
In another case, a woman named Shanee Halberd sought help from a data security firm after finding out her Social Security number had been used by someone for treatment at WellStar Cobb Hospital, near her home in Kennesaw, Georgia. While her bill was waived, she was not able to determine why the treatment was rendered due to privacy laws.
The greater impacts of recent healthcare cyberattacks have yet to be felt, or at least reported on, but more stories like Meiners' and Halberd's may soon come out in the wake of attacks on payers Anthem and Premera, and more recently on provider UCLA Health.
Despite the industry's continued focus on cybersecurity, the prevalence of attacks on providers remains high. Sixty-eight percent of 297 individuals responding to a HIMSS survey in July said there had been a recent attack on their facility.
To learn more:
- read the WSJ article