When scam artists steal insurance cards, Social Security numbers and provider IDs to gain illegal treatments, access drugs or sell information to black market, it can compromise patient safety and ruin providers' finances. As the fastest growing type of identity theft in the world, medical identity theft strikes more than 5,300 physicians who say they are victims, according to a federal database, American Medical News reported. However, with health information exchanges making headway, such incidents will be harder for criminals to pull off. --read the full article from FierceHealthcare