6 Ways To Protect Your Personal Health Information

Fraud and waste play a significant part in todays high healthcare costs, but patients can help lower those costs by following six tips to protect their medical information.

5 Tools Connect Patients To Their Healthcare (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
Verizon has offered several tips
to help consumers
protect their health information (PHI). According to a
Verizon statement
, about 10% of the $2.6 billion spent annually on healthcare goes toward fraud and waste. This fraud comes in many forms, including falsified billings, false coding of services, billing for services not delivered or excessive, and billing separately for elements that should be part of a bundled service, the release said.
But well-informed patients can help drive down those costs. Here are six ways to protect your PHI, said Connie Schweyen, managing principal of healthcare at Verizon, in an interview with
InformationWeek Healthcare
.
1. Guard Your Personal Information.
Provide insurance identification only to those who offer medical services, and dont let anyone borrow your insurance identification or Medicare card, advised Schweyen. Theres an increase in the number of people approaching Medicare individuals or others, asking to use their medical information so they can go out and purchase medical services, she said. Its an emerging, scheme, she said, that follows an old pattern. But its definitely occurring out there because the more vulnerable people in our population are subject to being abused in this way, she said.
[To find out which medical apps doctors and patients are turning to, see
9 Mobile Health Apps Worth A Closer Look
. ]
2. Beware Free Medical Services.
According to Schweyen, a common fraud scheme has sales people offering medical services or equipment for free, but in exchange for an insurance or Medicare identification number. There are a couple of different ways people are approached to do this, said Schweyen. [People] are approaching individuals through the promise of some financial payment to them or coercion to get free services, but theyre taking medical information in exchange for promising these services. Often, she continued, victims will end up being signed up for subscription services. There are so many stories of people who have garages full of diapers or diabetic supplies, and they dont know how to stop the supplies from coming, she said. The supplies arrive free to them, but insurance or government programs are being billed. Its fraud, waste, and abuse against the medical program its being billed to, she said.
3. Keep Accurate Medical Records.
Even if your physician uses an electronic healthcare record, as the patient you should keep track of your medical records, said Schweyen. A patient has the option to use a personal health information service or to simply keep a written record of any medical services and medications he has received. Its the ability to go back and verify your own personal data against what the provider may have recorded, she said. In some instances, Schweyen continued, doctors have fabricated medical record information so they can bill the insurance of a government health program. By documenting your health information as the patient, she said, you can go in and look at something that may be fabricated, she said. Sometimes, government investigators come along to look at providers data, and they can compare it and interview the patient to see what they may have on hand, so [the patient] isnt wrapped up in a fraud investigation inappropriately.
4. Review Your Medical Bills.
Make sure to ask for your bill at the time of your visit, and then check your bill to make sure it compares to the insurers description of your benefits. This ensures you arent charged for services you didnt receive or were charged for the same services twice. Sometimes theres an error, so its a good thing to check, but in other instances, when you see strange information, youll want to reach out to your health plan or a hotline to see if its appropriate, Schweyen continued. Additionally, she said, check that the dates and services match up.
5. Destroy Medical Records Before Throwing Them In The Trash.
Its an obvious tip, but Schweyen said to make sure to shred or rip up any medical documents to stop information from getting into the wrong hands or having your
identity stolen
. We get all this medical information, and it can be gone through in dumpsters or garbage cans; medical documents or other bills have identifying information on them, she said.
6. Report Possible Fraud.
Most people dont know what to do when fraud is determined, said Schweyen. Frequently, health plans have direct fraud help lines. Medicare and Medicaid also have phone numbers established so people can report fraud. In certain instances, if youre in a provider practice and you see fraud happening, you can be eligible for a whistleblower reward, Schweyen said. Its always good for people to report fraud to prevent costs from going up and to protect our insurance and health programs from overspending money.
Clinical, patient engagement, and consumer apps promise to re-energize healthcare. Also in the new, all-digital
Mobile Power
issue of InformationWeek Healthcare: Comparative effectiveness research taps the IT toolbox to compare treatments to determine which ones are most effective. (Free registration required.)

Last News
▸ Debunking Machine Learning in Security. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Researchers create BlackForest to gather, link threat data. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ Travel agency fined £150,000 for breaking Data Protection Act. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
6 Ways To Protect Your Personal Health Information