Beginning June 1, 2010, physician offices and other healthcare providers are required to comply with The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) as amended in October of 2007 to include the “Identity Theft Red Flag Rule”.
Why was FACTA amended to include Red Flag Rules?
The rule is designed to protect consumers from identity theft by requiring businesses like Hilltop Family Physicians to have policies and procedures in place to identify, detect and respond to activities that indicate the possible existence of identity theft.
What will Hilltop Family Physicians do to reduce the risk of identity theft?
Hilltop Family Physicians has always taken its responsibility of protecting the identity and confidential information of our patients very seriously. However, the new rules taking effect June 1 will require some additional steps to be taken on our part.
We will require a government-issued photo ID for each adult patient; this is used to confirm the patient’s identity. Hilltop Family Physicians has security policies in place to ensure that your data is safe from exposure or release to other parties. Our staff is trained in patient privacy, committed to protecting your information and is on the alert for suspicious activity.
What will Hilltop Family Physicians do if they find Red Flag activities on my account?
Depending on the type of Red Flag identified, Hilltop Family Physicians staff may do one of the following:
- Flag an account for suspected identity issues so that all staff will be alerted to watch for suspicious activity
- Verify information provided by the patient by researching public information such as the Social Security Administration’s files
- Contact the patient to discuss concern about a possible identity theft
What can I do to protect my identity?
As a consumer of medical services there are several things you can do to help safeguard your identity:
- Safeguard your medical information; keep your medical insurance ID card and other information in a secure place as you would your credit card
- Request an annual listing of all benefits paid by your insurer and review to be sure only service to you or your dependents received are listed
- If fraudulent activity is suspected be proactive in contacting the provider of service and investigating the situation
- Check your credit report. You can get a free copy of your credit report from the three national consumer reporting agencies, depending on where you live. For more information see www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs1-surv.htm.
For questions, concerns or comments please contact our Privacy and Security Office, Jennifer Souders at 303-841-2212, x20.