Rise In Identity Theft Using Medical Data

Nearly 95% of health care providers have admitted the loss of medical data in just two years.

A patient’s privacy is sacrosanct and is guarded religiously. However, according to a study conducted, most of the healthcare providers have lost medical data of their patients and continue to do so. The numbers are rising and this trend is now becoming worrisome. Many of these data breaches have led to identity theft causing the consumers numerous problems.

The use of computing devices for storing patients’ medical data is risking their identity.

This study that revealed the data breaches sought to find the reason for this. The reason uncovered was shocking. The reason why this is happening is because the institution and healthcare providers are losing their computing devices that contain the records. This loss of computing devices has led to the loss of the patient’s privacy that in turn has led to identity theft.

So, now that the reason has been uncovered what is being done to protect these records? Nothing! This is what most of the organizations have admitted. The computing devices are portable and small. The use of these mobile devices is risky but nothing is being done at many institutions.

The medical organizations do not offer protection from identity theft to the patients.

Although, this matter should be treated on priority basis and as a major crime, many of the healthcare providers are of the belief that the organizations with which they are associated are not taking it seriously. These institutions’ apathy towards this matter is criminal especially when they do not offer any protection to the affected patients.

The number of breaches have doubled in one year, costing the institutions more than $2 million.

More than half of the health care providers believe that their organizations are criminally negligent when it comes to medical data. They believe that even if they set about to detect lost or stolen data, they will fail, as they do not have the resources to do so. Data is not maintained properly, leading to identity theft of a huge magnitude.

With the thieves getting bolder due to the attitude of the organizations, the thefts are becoming much more serious, leading to troubles not only for the consumers but also a crippling loss to the medical organizations.

In such a scenario, the only option left is for the patient to safeguard their identities themselves. The consumers and patients must take care that their identity is safe by reviewing their reports periodically and as frequently as possible. This is a matter that should be taken seriously by both the medical institutions and the patients. Loss of identity can cause the consumer major problems in his life.