Medical Identity Theft Rates Continue to Rise Rapidly, Survey Finds

Medical identity theft increased by almost 22% in 2014 compared with 2013, with nearly 500,000 victims in 2014, according to the 2014 Fifth Annual Study on Medical Identity Theft. The report, sponsored by the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, estimated that 2.32 million Americans, about 1% of the adult population, have been victims of medical identity theft. Most of these individuals do not know they were victims for at least three months after the incident, and 30% may never know, according to the report; for example, among patients who identified errors on explanation-of-benefits forms, more than half did not know how to report the problem.