Have you ever heard of medical identity theft? I had not, but did you know medical identity theft is one of the most common and least preventable forms of identity theft? Using Personal Identifiable Information or PII, criminals can pay their medical bills under the name of unknowing citizens.
With over one million cases of medical identity theft a year, this is a very serious and prevalent problem. I can’t imagine getting billed thousands of dollars for a medical procedure I never had, yet I would be the one correcting the problem. It would cost me an average of $20,000 to recover after having my identity stolen for someone else’s healthcare. I don’t have $20,000. I bet most people don’t have twenty thousand bucks lying around to regain their identity from some crook.
This infographic perfectly emphasizes some of the biggest problems with the American healthcare system. Inaccurate patient identification seems like it shouldn’t be such a dilemma, but it has ruiend the lives of countless honest Americans. A simple patient chart misplacement can cause misdiagnosis or botched surgeries. Fixing these problems and streamlining the healthcare process are the only way we can improve the nation’s care for its citizens. [Patient Identification Systems]