Health IT office awards contract to fight medical identity theft

By Bob Brewin

The federal office overseeing the development of a national system of electronic medical records awarded a $450,000 contract on Wednesday to Booz Allen Hamilton to evaluate the scope of medical identity theft in the United States.

"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," said Robert Kolodner, national coordinator for health information technology at the Health and Human Services Department.

Officials with the national coordinator's office, which is spearheading the effort to provide most Americans with electronic health records by 2014, said Booz Allen will examine how information technology can be used to detect and prevent medical identity theft.

Medical identity theft is the act of stealing patients' electronic health records with the intent of committing crimes, such as blackmailing individuals who have been diagnosed as being HIV-positive or using the stolen medical records to set up fake medical clinics to file false claims. Last year, fivepeople pleaded guilty to operating such a clinic to defraud Medicare.

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