Theft of Medical Insurance Identity

8 years ago

I got a real shock Saturday night as I opened
mail. One was from Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBS) California.
Wondered why I was getting something from the California office since I have never
lived in or sought medical attention when on travel status or visiting California.
Interestingly, there was no name of a provider of the medical services
either. The notice was letting me know that services enumerated were of
an experimental type and the insurance company did not cover any kind of
experimental radiology treatments. All of the "visits"
annotated were in April 2017. The advice was that I owed the provider
(whoever that was) nearly $2,000. Needless to say, I will be contacting my BCBS office today.

Never
dreamrd of anyone committing identity theft of medical insurance. I
checked the number and it was the same as mine. The only places that have
ever asked for my insurance card were hospitals, doctors' offices, and when I
have had to have X-ray exams. I have had very few X-rays in my life and
certainly never radiation treatment.

Just
shows we always have to be wary of giving out any kind of personal information
to anyone. This just blows my mind.

Featured Answer

Fun2BHere

8 years ago

Identity theft is out of control. I wish certain government officials would concentrate on fixing that problem instead of building useless fences.

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Comments (12)

loonlakelaborcamp
8 years ago
This happened with my father at the VA hospital. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in left kidney, decided to have the surgery through the VA. He was told he had that kidney out years before! It was right there in the VA records!

We had him check his credit records because he had no credit cards or loans in 20 years. Sure enough, there were credit cards and collection items on his name. Some still active.
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Although it's annoying, this really isn't what's called identity theft. I know people who were victim of true identity theft, where someone actually assumed the person's identity, not just made a one-time use of a card or something, and the results are usually devastating to the person. You can't buy anything with a credit card, you can't get/keep a checking account, bank accounts can be frozen, retirement funds can be affected, your job is often impacted and you even risk losing it, your driver license is affected, insurance of all types and way more happens with an identity theft. That's some bad stuff. I've had fraudulent use of my credit card attempted before. And I applaud the cc company for being on top of it. Sad part is with the way things are now, we don't completely control our private data. Banks, employers, stores, health people, pharmacies, hospitals, insurance companies and many others are in possession of the data and we see on the news seemingly weekly where someone is broken into and robbed of sensitive data on millions of people.
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joyfulguy
8 years ago
But ... others are going to pay for the fences, right?

We had a cartoon here a while ago - a Mountie on a moose, with an old muzzle loader gun, protecting our border (from interlopers, I suppose).

ole joyful
matti5
8 years ago
Same thing happened to me last year, but it wasn't identity theft which I had immediately suspected. It turned out to be an error on the part of BCBS. I hope that's the case for you too.
Michael
8 years ago
That's very unlikely to happen here. I must show photo ID and Medical card at every appointment. If my face doesn't match the one appearing on the receptionist screen, security is notified. You're probably being scammed by snail mail.
User
8 years ago
We have to show ID also. I guess that wouldn't stop someone from forging an ID card.

We've also had the problem of an error because someone had the same or similar name. A phone call cleared that up.
Michael
8 years ago
But, most offices require a photo taken at first visit, and updated every appointment thereafter. Hard to forge your face.
sleeperblues
8 years ago
We received a notice last year that we were part of the Anthem data breach. Also the equifax data breach. I believe Anthem is BCBS?
cat_ky
8 years ago
I have never had a picture taken at a medical office. Do have to show medical card.
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
It may be identity theft but it could also be the doctor's office not entering the correct insurance number. Several insurance companies are interconnected and only use the insurance number to find addresses in their systems. If the insurance number keyed to your name and address the computer would fill in the blanks using your information. I had this happen a couple of years ago. Insurance system at that time read the card but the receptionist had to rekey the number to verify it. Both names and numbers were on the card but she picked up my husband's number. I had a hard time correcting.
chisue
8 years ago
I'm required to show ID at on medical visits. (Now I get to show the whole world gets my ugly DMV photo.)
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
My Dr's office always takes a "new" photo when we come in for our check ups. Glad they do. Hope I never have to try to take back our identity.

I've heard of college students that graduate, having taken out loans on someone elses social security number. Now they've graduated they have to start making payments or pay in full...and suddenly the unsuspecting victim has the govt. take their entire bank account to pay for the loan. (Clark Howard tells that story on his radio show)

Theft of Medical Insurance Identity

Fun2BHere

Comments (12)

loonlakelaborcamp

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