Why Many Healthcare Workers Are Responsible for Alarming Trend: Medical ID Theft
Sept. 26, 2011
Medical identity theft is skyrocketing. It’s the fast-growing trend in ID thievery, and the data shows it adversely impacted 1.42 million Americans in 2010, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in a published report.
PwC reports medical ID theft aggregately cost more than $28 billion.
“The root cause of the fraudulent use of someone else’s medical identification is that protected medical information is widely dispersed in multiple information systems where it all too often is inadequately secured,” says nationally known security expert, Dr. Stan Stahl, president of Citadel Information Group, Inc. in Los Angeles.
MedPage Today (Medical Identity Theft a Growing Problem) reported the three most common identity breaches:
- Employees who act unprofessionally – improper use of patients’ data in doctors’ offices, hospitals, insurance company and life sciences companies. They’ve even been caught posting comments about patients on Facebook.
- Almost 40 percent of hospitals and physicians report they have caught patients using another person’s identity when they seek treatment.
- Twenty-five percent of insurance companies acknowledge the improper transfer of information in patients’ health files. Unauthorized persons viewed such files.
“Every organization that collects or stores personally identifiable medical information – hospitals, doctors, clinics, pharmacies, billing offices, insurance companies, even employers – has a legal and ethical obligation to properly secure that information,” asserts Dr.Stahl.
In public reports, theft was responsible for 66 percent of medical ID breaches in the last two years. The thefts include notebook computers, smartphones, using another person’s personal information for fraudulent claims, and people using others’ names.
More shocking news
Authors of the PwC study indicated most healthcare organizations aren’t equipped to prevent medical ID theft – despite the growing use of information technology in the medical profession.
“Most breaches are not the result of [information technology] IT hackers, but rather reflect the increase in the risks of the knowledgeable insider related to identity theft and simple human error – loss of a computer or device, lack of knowledge or unintended unauthorized disclosure,” said James Koenig, director of the Health Information Privacy and Security Practice at PwC in a press statement.
More than 50 percent of the study’s respondents who work for healthcare organizations said they knew of at least one privacy breach since 2009.
“Doctors need to take measures to assure their patients are who they say they are,” recommends Dr. Stahl. “That can include checking referrals.”
What can patients do?
“Patients need to treat their medical information with the same care that they treat their financial information, including periodically checking with their insurance company to identify fraudulent activity,” advises Dr. Stahl.
The PwC study indicated that most healthcare organizations admit they haven’t even begun to adequately deal with privacy and security issues in this digital-information age.
Obviously, as a business-performance consultant, here’s my sense:
- The medical profession should immediately take adequate security precautions.
- All medical employees should undergo privacy-confidentiality sensitivity training.
After all, shouldn’t these precautions be part of medical care?
Dr. Stahl’s links:
From the Coach’s Corner, you might consider these security-resource links:
Security Precautions to Take Following Citibank’s Second Reported Online Breach
Our Mobile-Banking Warnings about Security Prove Prophetic
11 Travel Tips – Save Money, Prevent against Cyber Theft, Fraud
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
-Kahlil Gibran
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Trends in Human Resources Management – Wharton Study
Some intriguing revelations have to come to light concerning developments in human resources management, according to a Wharton study.
The study considered trends in the human resources management of Fortune 100 firms – in 1999 and again in 2009 – and it provides insights for the future. All the answers led to one conclusion. HR is being accorded higher regard as a profession.
The study: “Who gets the top job? Changes in the attributes of human resource heads and implications for the future.”
It was researched by Dr. Peter Cappelli, a Wharton management professor, and Yang Yang, a Wharton post-doctoral fellow.
As for who gets the top job, 27 percent of the HR managers were women before the decade began. Now, 42 percent of HR managers are women.
The average HR manager is 53 years old. That’s up from 50.
“Why is not completely clear,” said Dr. Cappelli. “It could be a sign that the area has been stagnant as opposed to others.”
Conventional wisdom is that HR managers are required to have a broad business background. That was especially true in 1999 during a period of high employment.
During the Great Recession with dwindling union membership rolls and high unemployment, HR executives tend to have more of a traditional HR background. But Dr. Cappelli indicates it’s expected “top leaders” have general-business acumen to understand the big picture facing their companies.
The data shows they’re hired as HR managers 39 percent of the time from other firms. That’s down from 41 percent in 1999.
However, it also indicates the managers were hired at lower levels and promoted in a short period of time to the top HR spots later.
Preferred Experience
Many had experience working in these companies: Citibank, Dell, Hallmark, Morgan Stanley, Pepsi and Verizon.
“When a new person takes over that top role, the change in his or her attributes is quite likely to say something about the change in the priorities the CEO has for human resources going forward. Looking at how the backgrounds of these top executives have been changing should tell us something very important about trends in how corporate leadership sees the HR function,” according to the researchers.
While HR managers in the Fortune 100 tend to have bachelor’s and master’s degrees, fewer have doctorates.
Nearly 50 percent had international experience – especially in top 60 – a 300 percent increase over 1999 levels.
Twenty percent in 2009 had communications and corporate affairs experience.
Accountability has taken on more importance.
“The adage, ‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure,’ reflects this move to get more serious about control systems, especially where the costs are high,” said Dr. Cappelli.
“While HR lacks the glamour within the business community of fields like strategy, its actions have a profound effect on the lives of employees,” the authors wrote. “Human resources is a crucial point of intersection between the broader society and business,” wrote the researchers.
The study showed just four of the HR managers remained lasted from 1999 to 2009.
The study was funded by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
From the Coach’s Corner, for more on the importance of HR management as a profession, please see this Biz Coach column: If Mergers & Acquisitions Tempt You, Consult HR Pros.
