Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/220320
Health Tips Continued JOBS for TEAMS | (whom we cited previously) stole the medical identity of a mother, and delivered a baby who tested positive for illegal drugs. Social workers tried to take away the real mother's four children, falsely thinking she was the addict. She had to hire a lawyer to keep her family. • Higher health premiums. False claims against a health insurance policy can raise your health premiums—costing you yet more money. There are ways to fight back, or at the very least keep things in check. For instance, make it a point to keep your eye on the explanation of benefits form sent by your health insurer. I know you might get a Popsicle headache trying to decipher all the numbers and medical and insurance jargon, but it is important. Check your medical records frequently as thieves can alter information. Don't let somebody play games with your life. If you see inaccuracies on your medical records, make every effort to fix them. But be forewarned, unless you are a trained expert at such things, it can be a very daunting task. Correcting records can be hard. In general, federal law lets patients correct medical records created only by the medical provider or insurer that now maintains your information. A hospital or insurer that later receives your information doesn't have to correct its records— even when they're wrong. But you do have the right to have your records state that you disagree with the information, and why. Be sure your complaint is entered into your records. The seriousness of Medical ID Theft has not been lost on employers, who have now started offering recovery service to their employees as a value-added benefit, which is important because it can sometimes take hundreds of hours to correct mistakes, hours that are often spent on company time.These benefits can usually be offered by the company's WWW.CHANGINGLANESDIGITAL.COM 40` JobsForTeams1113_HealthHelp.indd 3 insurance agents and brokers, who have now viewed offering an ID theft recovery package as a way to not only bring value to their clients but as a substitute for lost commissions which have started to fall by the wayside over the past 10 years or so with the economic crunch. Although some companies offer credit monitoring as an employee benefit, credit monitoring does not reveal cases of Medical ID Theft. When it comes to Medical ID Theft it's not a question of "if" but "when." So when it happens, the key is to find out the information as quickly as possible and then sign-on with a company that will conduct the recovery as rapidly and painlessly as possible, as traditionally some cases can take years to resolve, longer than other forms of identity theft. It's not uncommon for victims to still be fighting cases for more than 10 years. But it's a battle worth fighting in order to fully reclaim your medical identity. There was a story recently about a thief who stole a person's dental records and racked up thousands of dollars in dental work.The victim's advise to his family;"If I ever die and there's only dental records, make sure it's me. I might be on vacation somewhere."> Christopher Durso is CEO/Co-Founder of ID Theft Solutions USA, Mahwah, NJ. Chris has been in the insurance and benefits field for more than 20 years, while working with corporate giants such as IBM, Verizon and the New York State Federal Government. He has successfully launched three corporate entities and owned his own employee benefits brokerage firm for nearly 15 years. He also worked for Willis of New York, the third largest broker in the world. Chris can be reached at chris@ idtheftsolutionsusa.com and at 914-8795856. For more information visit www. idtheftsolutionsusa.com. | APRIL www.jobsforteams.com CHANGING LANES 3 11/4/13 9:43 AM