EMR Data Theft Booming
Published: 2010-07-13 22:34:44By: Nicole Lewis | InformationWeek | March 26, 2010
Acceleration in the use of electronic medical records may lead to an increase in personal health information theft, according to a new study that shows there were more than 275,000 cases of medical information theft in the U.S. last year.
Unlike stealing a driver's license or a credit card, data gleaned from personal health records provides a wealth of information that helps criminals commit multiple crimes, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, a Pleasanton, California-based market research firm.
Information such as social security numbers, addresses, medical insurance numbers, past illnesses, and sometimes credit card numbers, can help criminals commit several types of fraud. These may include: making payments from stolen credit card numbers and ordering and reselling medical equipment by using stolen medical insurance numbers.
A key finding from the report is that fraud resulting from exposure of health data has risen from 3% in 2008 to 7% in 2009, a 112% increase.
"There's more Identity fraud of any kind being generated from exposure to health records which [have] particularly sensitive information," said James Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research.
Van Dyke's prediction is that as medical providers increase their use of electronic medical records, the incidents of fraud will increase.