Stealing Your Health: Medical ID Theft

May 3, 2006 — -- There's a new kind of identity theft going around that can leave you bankrupt and be hazardous to your health.

A report released today by the World Privacy Forum, a non-profit research group, describes the threat as medical identity theft. It happens when someone uses your social security number to obtain medical care -- even surgery -- while pretending to be you. According to the report, there have been 19,428 complaints about medical identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission since that agency started recording such complaints in 1992.

However, the report also notes that medical identity theft is underreported and may be more common that law enforcement officials believe.

"This crime is under-researched and under-documented," the report says. "It is highly probable that…more cases exist."

For Joe Ryan of Vail, Colo., medical identity theft has meant financial ruin for him. He got a $40,000 bill for a surgery he never had.

"This must be a joke," Ryan said when he received the bill.

According to Ryan, the bill collectors told him, "You're Joe Ryan aren't you? And your social security number is? ... And your date of birth?"

Unfortunately for Ryan, it wasn't a joke. Surgery was performed but on the wrong person.

Police believe the imposter was a man named Joe Henslik, a career criminal who stole Ryan's identity. Henslik later died, but police believe he first confessed to his alleged crime in a voicemail message, saying "I had to get in the hospital. ... But I had no insurance."

In Ryan's case, the alleged medical identity thief was already a criminal and had no relationship with his victim. In other cases discovered by ABC News, imposters have received medical care by posing as their friends, family members, and co-workers.

Using your social security number, date of birth, or insurance information, medical identity thieves can taint your record with doctor's appointments you've never made and medical treatments you've never received. Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, believes imposters might even use the tactic to "scrub" their own medical histories, purposely leaving a trail of treatments for chronic or stigmatizing illness on your records instead of theirs.