Medical  Identity Theft: The Impact On Health It Assessment

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced today the award of approximately $450,000 to Booz Allen Hamilton to assess and evaluate the scope of the medical identity theft problem in the United States.

Ensuring that electronic health information exchange is secure and protected is fundamental to building consumer and stakeholder trust. The purpose of this project is to consider the intersection of health IT and medical identity theft, including examining how health information technology can be used to detect and prevent medical identity theft.

"The prevention and detection of medical identify theft along with actions to address problems that may occur as a result of medical identity theft, are necessary steps to build consumer trust in electronic health information exchange. In order to build that trust, all aspects of the problem must be understood including how health IT provide opportunities for prevention, detection, and remediation," said HHS' National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Robert M. Kolodner, M.D.

The first phase of this project includes the development of an environmental scan to assess the scope of the problem and to serve as the baseline for developing prevention, detection, and remediation strategies. A one-day town hall meeting will be held in October 2008 in the Washington, DC, area, during the second phase of the project, and will be open to the public.

The town hall will bring together public and private health care stakeholders to share knowledge and experience with experts from other economic sectors that deal with medical identity theft. It will explore how medical identity theft should be considered and addressed in a health IT environment.

The third phase of the project will result in a final report and roadmap, summarizing key issues and possible next steps. Medical identity theft is a specific type of identity theft which occurs when someone uses another person's identifiable health information, such as insurance information or medical records, without the individual's knowledge or consent, to obtain medical goods or services, or to submit false claims for medical services. A limited number of studies are available about the scope, depth, and breadth of medical identity theft.

For more information about this program and other ONC initiatives, visit: www.hhs.gov/healthit