By Healthcare Facilities Today

Recently, California Attorney General Kamala Harris released a report with recommendations on how to prevent, detect and reduce medical identity theft, according to an article on the California Healthline website. A recent Ponemon survey found that 1.8 million U.S. residents currently are affected by medical identity theft. According to the survey, examples of such fraud include individuals receiving medical care using another person's information and doctors writing fraudulent prescriptions.

"As the Affordable Care Act encourages the move to electronic [health] records, the health care industry has an opportunity to improve public health and combat medical identity theft with forward-looking policies and the strategic use of technology," Harris said in a release about the report.

Harris recommends that health care providers:

• Educate staff and patients about medical identity theft

• Implement technology and policies to detect such fraud

• Offer patients no-cost copies of portions of their health records to check for fraud 

• Make prompt corrections or notations when signs of fraud are discovered.

In the report, Harris calls on the state Department of Health and Human Services to include a medical identity theft incident response plan in its certification requirements for health information exchanges or organizations and accountable care organizations.

Read the article.