How to Prevent Homecare and Hospice Medical Identity Theft

As more and more baby boomers reach their golden years, more and more of them need the services of homecare and hospice agencies. This rapid influx is good for the industry, but agencies need to be as vigilant as ever in their hiring practices of caregivers.

Why? Because medical identity theft is on the rise, and homecare and hospice agencies are easy targets. You need to take immediate action to safeguard your agency, reputation, and clients from the growing threat of medical identity theft.

Medical identity theft is an insidious crime in which an identity thief uses someone else’s identity to gain access to medical services, treatment, or equipment. Since elderly patients are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of medical identity theft, your agency must take extra precautions. This includes stringent hiring protocols and foolproof IT policies and procedures.

Most agencies consult with experts to ensure their entire operation is protected from medical identity theft. Through a comprehensive review of the organization, medical identity theft experts ensure that homecare and hospice agencies:
• Perform thorough background checks on all employees: Employees are the first line of defense to prevent medical identity theft, so it’s critical that homecare and hospice agencies put employees through a rigorous screening process. A medical identity theft expert assists with criminal background checks, speaking with references, and setting up a system for maintaining extensive employee records.
• Create medical identity theft policies and procedures: Professional agencies need to have a strict set of policies and procedures in place to safeguard protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
• Ensure patient records are secure: Agencies should also have a secure IT network that only allows authorized users to access sensitive patient information. A medical identity thief can run rampant and ruin lives with the push of a button unless safeguards are built into the system. Complex passwords should be implemented only for those employees who need access to patient records.
• Make sure both the doctors and patients are “real”: Many medical identity thieves prey on the system by actually impersonating doctors and patients for monetary gain. This includes pretending to be a doctor to prescribe medication for the thief and/or his cohorts, as well as using another person’s insurance card to obtain medical services. Do your homework to ensure that physicians have professional references and admitting privileges to medical facilities.

As a homecare or hospice agency, you can significantly reduce your vulnerability to medical identity theft by working with a medical ID theft expert. Visit www.TheIdentityAdvocate.com or call 310.831.4400 to schedule your comprehensive medical identify theft review. And, don’t forget to ask how you can safeguard your agency with an eye-opening “Lunch and Learn” for your employees.

Read this great article posted at Fierce EMR ( http://www.fierceemr.com/story/ehrs-major-cause-patient-info-breaches/2012-04-12?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal ) and continue to worry about who has access to your person health information. Identity Theft is coming at everyone from so many sources, whether it is from a stolen laptop, thumb-drive, Identity Theft rings or cyber-hacking, we can never be sure who can access our information. And what do you do to protect it or more importantly who quickly can you recover your information if it has been compromised? See my website protection page information at: http://www.theidentityadvocate.com/identity-theft-protection.php.
Call or connect with me for questions!

Medical Identity Theft: It Can Kill You!

Medical identity theft is a growing threat in the nefarious world of identity theft. Although it is not as well-known as financial identity theft, the impact of medical identity theft is long-lasting and life-threatening. It affects one in four Americans and accounts for three percent of all identity theft cases, or approximately 250,000 cases per year. With only one arrest made in every 700 cases, medical identity theft costs consumers and businesses nearly $60 billion each year.

Unfortunately, the financial costs of medical identity theft are only part of the problem. In addition to the devastating economic ramifications, medical identity theft can literally be a matter of life and death. An incorrect entry such as an allergy or blood type in the medical records of a victim can lead to serious reactions or death.

This informative, unforgettable presentation takes participants step-by-step through the dangers physicians, patients, and businesses face, as well as tried and true strategies for preventing medical identity theft. Attendees learn:
• Common tactics thieves use to gain access to personal information
• How to spot medical identity theft
• Latest scams
• Strategies to implement to prevent medical identity theft
• Immediate actions to take if you become a victim

Thursday, March 22nd
10:00-11:30am

Offices of Financial Network
25500 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 1140
Torrance, CA 90505
Guest Speaker: Linda Vincent, RN. PI.
Linda Vincent is a registered nurse and private investigator with a firm belief in education. She is an identity theft and healthcare fraud prevention expert, specializes in medical consulting and investigations. With over 35 years of experience in healthcare her experience includes hospital and physician audits, managed care consulting, and healthcare fraud education, training, investigations, negotiations, and case review.
Ms. Vincent, as the Founder of The Identity Advocate is committed to providing unparalleled education, consulting, resources, and investigations to help protect professionals, corporations, and consumers from the perils of identity theft and healthcare fraud.
RSVP to Mark Tsujimoto at: (310) 373-7351 x304 or tsujimotom@financialnetwork.com
as seating is limited

Everyone has heard of hacking. It’s in the news all the time, often related to large corporations being hacked for their data. Since the reports are about corporations, as individuals it can seem like someone else’s problem.

But the information being stolen could be yours. Your Social Security number, credit card information, medical information—and pretty much any other personal data you can think of—can be hacked. If it does, your identity could be used to rack-up thousands of dollars of debt that you only find out about months later. On average, restoring your good name can take as much as 6,000 hours as well.

One of the most devastating and potentially deadly forms of data breaches involves stolen electronic medical records and the resulting medical identity theft. Hackers can wreak havoc by stealing your personal health information to either sell or use themselves to impersonate you when they need medical treatment. If an identity thief gets medical treatment using your name, the thief’s medical information—such as test results, allergies, blood type, or illnesses—will become part of your medical file. Certain conditions or procedures performed using your good name can prevent you from being able to get health insurance or even receive the medical help you need.

Here are a few of the many medical data breaches where hackers have left their indelible mark:
• A December 2011 report by the Privacy Right Clearinghouse Sensitive estimated that three of the six largest data breaches in 2011 compromised 11 million patient records and healthcare organizations
• According to the Ponemon Institute, healthcare data breaches alone were up 32 percent and the average data breach loss cost $7.2 million in 2010
• The Identity Theft Resource Center stated that the theft of medical data increased by 50 percent in 2011
• 385 protected health information (PHI) breaches have affected over 19 million records since 2009
• Medical records accounted for more than one third of all records lost to data breaches in 2011
• According to Redspin, there was a 97 percent increase in medical records breached in 2011 compared to 2010

These statistics are scary, to say the least. From individuals to private practices to large corporations, medical identity theft can do irreparable harm. But it doesn’t have to. One of the most effective ways to protect yourself and your business from medical identity theft is to be proactive. Enrolling in a service such as Entrust America, the only identity theft prevention and recovery service with a 100% track record of recovering stolen identities over the past five years, is the best way to safeguard your identity.

Entrust America’s medical identity theft prevention and recovery services include:
• A 24/7 hotline to call if you suspect you have been a victim of medical identity theft. Entrust America’s on-call identity theft specialists quickly determine whether a fraud has occurred and, if so, which of the over forty different kinds of identity theft have been committed.
• Overnighting an ID Theft Resolution Kit that includes forms to be submitted to the IRS, DMV, Social Security Administration, and the three credit reporting agencies to notify them that a theft has occurred.
• Reporting the medical identity theft to your local authorities and creditors, requesting that creditors cancel existing cards and issue new ones, and placing a security freeze on your credit records that lasts for seven years.
• Contacting you with status updates whenever there is activity on your case, and following-up with creditors to ensure they properly repair your accounts.
• Recovery specialists who are all law enforcement professionals. They have the time and expertise to immediately launch a full investigation into your medical identity theft, completely reverse damages, and bring the identity thieves to justice.
• Recovery of your identity to pre-theft status. No other identity theft prevention and recovery company has a better track record of reducing the likelihood of your identity being compromised. Entrust America gives you total peace of mind.

Entrust America is not just for individuals. Professional medical practices and corporations alike can protect themselves from data breaches that can cost millions of dollars and put patients and employees at risk.

U.S. Department of Justice February 14, 2012

Office of Public Affairs (202) 514-2007/TDD (202)514-1888

WASHINGTON—Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report showing that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered nearly $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars in fiscal year (FY) 2011. This is the highest annual amount ever recovered from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud seniors and taxpayers or who sought payments to which they were not entitled.

These findings, released today in the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program (HCFAC) report, are a result of President Obama making the elimination of fraud, waste, and abuse a top priority in his administration. The success of this joint Department of Justice and HHS effort would not have been possible without the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to crack down on the fraud perpetrators who are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars. These efforts to reduce fraud will continue to improve with the new tools and resources provided by the Affordable Care Act.

“This report reflects unprecedented successes by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services in aggressively preventing and combating health care fraud, safeguarding precious taxpayer dollars and ensuring the strength of our essential health care programs,” said Attorney General Holder. “We can all be proud of what’s been achieved in the last fiscal year by the department’s prosecutors, analysts and investigators—and by our partners at HHS. These efforts reflect a strong, ongoing commitment to fiscal accountability and to helping the American people at a time when budgets are tight.”

“Fighting fraud is one of our top priorities and we have recovered an unprecedented number of taxpayer dollars,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Our efforts strengthen the integrity of our health care programs, and meet the President’s call for a return to American values that ensure everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.”

Approximately $4.1 billion stolen or otherwise improperly obtained from federal health care programs was recovered and returned to the Medicare Trust Funds, the Treasury and others in FY 2011. This is an unprecedented achievement for HCFAC, a joint effort of the two departments to coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement activities to fight health care fraud and abuse.

The recently enacted Affordable Care Act provides additional tools and resources to help fight fraud that will help boost these efforts, including an additional $350 million for HCFAC activities. The administration is already using tools authorized by the Affordable Care Act, including enhanced screenings and enrollment requirements, increased data sharing across government, expanded overpayment recovery efforts, and greater oversight of private insurance abuses.

Since 2009, the Departments of Justice and HHS have enhanced their coordination through HEAT and have increased the number of Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams. During FY 2011, HEAT and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud. The departments hosted a series of regional fraud prevention summits around the country, provided free compliance training for providers and other stakeholders and sent letters to state attorneys general urging them to work with HHS and federal, state and local law enforcement officials to mount a substantial outreach campaign to educate seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries about how to prevent scams and fraud.

In FY 2011, the total number of cities with strike force prosecution teams was increased to nine, all of which have teams of investigators and prosecutors from the Justice Department, the FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General, dedicated to fighting fraud. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes along with chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. In FY 2011, strike force operations charged a record number of 323 defendants, who allegedly collectively billed the Medicare program more than $1 billion. Strike force teams secured 172 guilty pleas, convicted 26 defendants at trial and sentenced 175 defendants to prison. The average prison sentence in strike force cases in FY 2011 was more than 47 months.

Including strike force matters, federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against a total of 1,430 defendants for health care fraud related crimes. This is the highest number of health care fraud defendants charged in a single year in the department’s history. Including strike force matters, a total of 743 defendants were convicted for health care fraud-related crimes during the year.

In criminal matters involving the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industry, the department obtained 21 criminal convictions and $1.3 billion in criminal fines, forfeitures, restitution and disgorgement under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. These matters included the illegal marketing of medical devices and pharmaceutical products for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the distribution of products that failed to conform to the strength, purity or quality required by the FDA.

The departments also continued their successes in civil health care fraud enforcement during FY 2011. Approximately $2.4 billion was recovered through civil health care fraud cases brought under the False Claims Act (FCA). These matters included unlawful pricing by pharmaceutical manufacturers, illegal marketing of medical devices and pharmaceutical products for uses not approved by the FDA, Medicare fraud by hospitals and other institutional providers, and violations of laws against self-referrals and kickbacks. This marked the second year in a row that more than $2 billion has been recovered in FCA health care matters and, since January 2009, the department has used the False Claims Act to recover more than $6.6 billion in federal health care dollars.

The fraud prevention and enforcement report announced today coincides with the announcement of a proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aimed at recollecting overpayments in the Medicare program. Before the Affordable Care Act, providers and suppliers did not face a deadline for returning taxpayers’ money. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there will be a specific timeframe by which self-identified overpayments must be returned. The Obama Administration has made prevention and recollection of overpayments a government-wide priority. These announcements today are just the latest in a series of steps that the administration is taking to protect taxpayer dollars and keep money in the pockets of Americans.

The HCFAC annual report can be found here, oig.hhs.gov/publications/hcfac.asp. For more information on the joint DOJ-HHS Strike Force activities, visit: www.StopMedicareFraud.gov/.